The day after Gov. Tom Wolf announced plans to ease some coronavirus restrictions in Allegheny and nearby counties, Allegheny reported 31 new cases of the disease. In all, the county has tracked 1,486 cases of COVID-19 since March. Saturday’s total is on the high side for recent days, but still comfortably below the roughly 43-cases-per-day average needed to meet a state target for being placed in “yellow” status.
The county did report 1 new COVID-19 related death and 14 hospitalizations – a notable spike, given that the number of recent daily hospitalizations has typically increased by numbers in the low-to-mid single digits. A county spokeswoman said the bump reflected an effort by health officals to tighten up on insurers’ reporting of COVID-19 cases involving hospitalization.
Statewide, there were an additional 72 deaths related to the disease reported Saturday, raising the death toll to 3,688 since March. Most of those deaths involved senior citizens: Two-thirds of them took place at nursing homes or other personal-care facilities.
The state also reported an additional 1,078 cases of COVID-19, raising the total so far to 55,316 cases. There have been an average of 1,088 new cases of the disease reported daily for the past two weeks. That is well below a peak a month ago, although it has proven difficult for the state to consistently post numbers in the three-digit range. While the state is easing restrictions on movement and economic activities in much of the state, Wolf also took action to extend those restrictions in hot-spot areas through early June.
