Allegheny County reports 276 new covid cases, 3 deaths
Mar. 6—Allegheny County on Saturday recorded 276 new coronavirus cases, as case counts and hospitalizations continue to decrease in the area.
Reports haven't reached 500 cases in nearly seven weeks and the county hasn't reported any 1,000-case days in the past nine weeks, according to data from the Allegheny County Health Department.
The seven-day average is 233 cases, down 31 from the previous week.
Three covid-related deaths were reported Saturday, increasing the county's toll to 1,700.
That's 31 more total deaths than at the same time last week. Two weeks before, there was an increase of 40.
Wednesday's numbers included 17 deaths, the highest report for the week.
The dates of death reported Saturday occurred from Oct. 15 to Dec. 9. County officials said the lag of reporting is due to an import of data by the state's death recording system.
One person was in their 80s, and the others were in their 90s. Two of the deaths were associated with long-term care facilities.
The county has amassed 78,079 cases of covid-19 since the start of the pandemic last March, according to the county Health Department.
Of the new cases, 206 are confirmed, and 70 are listed as probable. Health officials define a probable case as one in which a patient has a positive viral antigen test or covid symptoms with a "high-risk exposure" to someone who has been confirmed to have coronavirus.
The recent batch of samples comprising 970 tests was collected from Dec. 5 through Friday. Of those, five positive tests were more than a week old, officials said.
The tests yielded a positivity rate of about 21%. The cases range in age from 3 months to 90 years old, with a median age of 34.
One new hospitalizations were reported. Officials say 5,143 people have been hospitalized — 40 more than at the same time the preceding week — since the virus was first reported in Allegheny County on March 14. Of those hospitalized, 914 were admitted to an intensive care unit.
Nearly a week into March, Allegheny County has reported 1,410 covid-19 cases, which is an average of 235 per day; February's average was 261 cases per day, after posting a total of 7,301.
In January, 15,559 cases were reported — an average of 502 per day.
Throughout December, the county had amassed 25,405 new cases. This represents about 33% of Allegheny County's cases. That averaged 820 per day.
In November, officials recorded 12,608 new cases. December more than doubled that amount.
In the entirety of October, the county saw 3,448 new cases of the virus, which was an increase of 72% from September (2,001).
According to the Allegheny County covid website, officials are estimating that more than 73,000 people have now recovered from the virus.
The website counts people as recovered based on one of two conditions: It's been 32 days since the person was hospitalized for covid-19 and survived; and if they were not hospitalized, 14 days since they tested positive.
As of Saturday, the state reports there are 222,745 Allegheny County residents with at least one dose of a covid vaccine, and 87,818 residents with both doses.
Samson X Horne is a Tribune-Review digital producer. You can contact Samson at 412-320-7845, shorne@triblive.com or via Twitter .
