Allegheny County reports 526 coronavirus cases; 38 new deaths

Allegheny County recorded 526 new cases of the coronavirus on Saturday, as recent numbers continue to drop below 1,000 cases.

Reports have not reached 700 cases in more than a week.

The county has reported nine days of at least 1,000 new cases, but has not reported one in the past two weeks, according to data from the Allegheny County Health Department.

Thirty-eight more deaths were reported on Saturday, bringing the county’s death toll to 1,221.

That’s 135 more dead than this time last week.

The dates of death ranged from November 28 to Thursday. One death was from November, while 27 were from December.

Wednesday’s figures included 74 deaths, a record for the county’s daily report.

Among the newly reported deaths on Saturday, one was in their 50s; three people were in their sixties; 10 were 70 years old; 10 were 80 years old; and 14 were 90 years old.

Twenty deaths were associated with long-term care facilities.

The county has accumulated 63,844 cases of covid-19, according to the county health department.

Of the new cases, 402 are confirmed, while 124 are listed as probable. Health officials define a probable case as a case in which a patient has a positive viral antigen test or symptoms of covid with a “high risk exposure” to a person who has been confirmed to have a. coronavirus.

The recent batch of samples comprising 1,655 tests was collected from July 8 to Friday. Six positive tests are more than a week old, with one dating from July, officials said. The health department said the case was under investigation and had been sent to state officials.

The tests gave a positivity rate of about 24%. Cases vary in age from 5 months to 100 years, with a median age of 40 years.

Eight new hospitalizations were reported. Officials say 3,785 people have been hospitalized – 404 more than this time last week – since the virus was first reported in Allegheny County on March 14.

There are currently 450 covid-19 patients hospitalized in Allegheny County (up from 124 from last week), 145 of whom were admitted to intensive care units (33 fewer than last week). Sixty-three of those in an intensive care unit are said to be on ventilators (13 fewer than last week).

The numbers for the county haven’t been this low since Thanksgiving.

During the first sixteen days of January, Allegheny County reported 10,035 cases of covid-19, an average of 627 per day. That’s the rate for 19,442 cases for the month.

Throughout December, the county had accumulated 25,405 new cases. This represents almost 40% of cases in Allegheny County.

That averages 820 per day (compared to an average of 910 in the middle of the month); At the height of its outbreak, the county was on track to rack up 28,210 cases for the month.

In November, authorities registered 12,608 new cases. December more than doubled that amount.

In the entire month of October, the county recorded 3,448 new cases of the virus, an increase of 72.3% from September (2,001).

According to the Allegheny County covid website, officials estimate more than 21,000 people have now recovered from the virus.

The website counts people who have recovered under one of the following two conditions: It has been 32 days since the person was hospitalized for covid-19 and did not die; or, if they have not been hospitalized, 14 days since they tested positive.

Samson X Horne is a digital producer for Tribune-Review. You can contact Samson at 412-320-7845, [email protected] or via Twitter .