Covid spread now 'substantial' in Allegheny, other Western Pa. counties

Nine Western Pennsylvania counties are experiencing “substantial” levels of covid-19 transmission that fall under federal recommendations calling for people to wear masks indoors regardless of vaccination status.

Allegheny, Butler, Beaver, Lawrence, Washington, Armstrong, Indiana, Clarion and Somerset counties are all experiencing “substantial” covid-19 transmission, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC has four tiers of transmission: low, moderate, substantial and high.

Westmoreland County remains in the moderate category, according the latest data reported.

According to recently updated masking guidelines, the CDC recommends that everyone — including those who have been vaccinated against the coronavirus — wear masks indoors in counties where transmission is substantial or high.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health recommends that all Pennsylvanians follow the CDC guidelines regarding masks, spokeswoman Maggi Barton said Monday.

The state has not, however, reinstituted a mask mandate.

Barton stressed that health officials continue to focus on vaccines, citing “a correlation between increased vaccination rates and lower covid-19 case counts.”

“We cannot stress enough the importance of eligible Pennsylvanians getting vaccinated to stop the spread of covid-19,” Barton said.

In Allegheny County, there have been 711 covid-19 cases in the past seven days — a roughly 123% increase from the prior seven-day total, according to the CDC. Covid-related deaths, however, remained in the single digits.

The county had 58.47 covid-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the past seven days, according to CDC data. To be classified as “substantial” transmission, a county would report between 50 and 100 covid-19 cases per 100,000 residents.

Approximately 67% of the county’s population has received at least one dose of a covid-19 vaccine, while about 54% of the population is fully vaccinated.

Dr. Debra Bogen, Allegheny County Health Department’s director, confirmed the county now is “considered to have a substantial rate of transmission based on the last seven days of data.”

She echoed the CDC’s recommendation to wear masks “in public indoor settings in areas of substantial transmission.”

Like Barton, Bogen emphasized that “vaccination continues to be the most important public health action.”

Though the CDC’s new guidelines recommend masks in areas with substantial transmission, not everyone agrees with a new wave of masking now that vaccines are available.

“Masks are a paltry substitute for a vaccine,” said Pittsburgh-based infectious disease expert Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

The decision on whether or not to mask up now should be “made on personal risk tolerance,” he said Monday.

“In Allegheny County, enough high-risk individuals have been fully vaccinated that we are not going to see the same level of stress on hospitals as in the past,” Adalja said. “To me, the CDC guidance doesn’t necessarily make sense in an era where the vaccine is available. We know that the bulk of transmission is happening amongst unvaccinated individuals.”

Adalja said the goal should be to get more high-risk individuals vaccinated, rather than worrying about whether the vaccinated should be wearing masks.

In Pennsylvania, only one county — Crawford County — currently is listed as having “high” covid-19 transmission. Fulton and Tioga counties are the only two in the commonwealth experiencing “low” levels of the virus. Much of the state remains in the “moderate” tier.