In Allegheny County, 76 people were hospitalized for COVID-19 during the week ending on May 12; that’s a substantial increase from the 41 who were hospitalized during the previous week.
The rise in hospitalizations coincides with the rise in case numbers, according to the county health department’s weekly COVID-19 report.
Last week, 3,732 cases of COVID-19 were reported in Allegheny County. For the past two weeks, the county health department has reported roughly 1,000 more new cases than the previous week.
These numbers are an undercount due to the prevalence of at-home testing. However, tracking case numbers helps determine the pace of transmission in a community.
Regarding wastewater surveillance, the county health department reports that concentrations of COVID-19 in Pittsburgh-area sewage have continued to increase daily between 2-8% in May with omicron being the dominant variant.
