State health authorities revised Pennsylvania’s COVID-19 death toll upwards by more than 200 people Thursday – the latest in a series of efforts to bring the count in line with local totals. But other key metrics showed that both the state and Allegheny County are wrestling down the virus’ spread.
One day before the state is set to ease coronavirus restrictions, Allegheny County reported no new deaths from the disease and two fewer hospitalizations. The county said that was due to two errors in the data. In all, 283 county residents have been hospitalized for the disease since the pandemic began.
Out of 470 test results logged Thursday, the county also reported just six new cases of the virus, the lowest number since March 21. In all, 1,551 county residents have been diagnosed with the disease.
The state now reports 4,218 deaths from the disease, an increase of 275 deaths from the day before. Only 44 of those took place overnight, the Department of Health said in its daily release. The other 231 case “were reported as a result of a reconciliation of dat over the past several weeks.”
That is the fourth such adjustment to the toll in the past 10 days, as state officials struggle to measure the toll and align their numbers with those provided by county authorities.
But other metrics painted a sunnier picture. The state reported 938 new cases of the disease, but also nearly 7,400 tests that came back negative – the highest number of negative tests to date. In all, the state reported over 8,300 test results, its highest one-day total so far. Thursday's new case total was a jump from prior days, but on average the week is continuing a weeks-long trend toward lower daily case numbers.
