Sarah Boden

When a UPMC service coordinator received notification this month that it was her turn to get the COVID vaccine, she was surprised. 

It is likely the new strain of the coronavirus that was first identified in the U.K. is already circulating in Allegheny County, according to the chair of the county’s board of health.

GNC is allowing people to skip the line for coronavirus testing -- the Pittsburgh-based wellness retailer now sells an over-the-counter test on its website for $120. 

The coronavirus vaccine is coming to the Kane Community Living Centers, which have lost a total of 46 residents to COVID-19 this year.

It's a cold, white Christmas in Pittsburgh. 

Snowy weather and hazardous roads, in addition to the pandemic, are likely to interfere with this week's holiday celebrations.

State data shows that 299 Allegheny County residents have died from COVID-19 so far this month.

That means that one-third of the county’s total COVID fatalities since the start of the pandemic have occurred in December.

The Allegheny County Health Department reports that some 4,000 county residents have received their first doses of the coronavirus vaccine.

Essential workers will have the option to get the coronavirus before the general public, but details on how members of this vast and diverse group will be prioritized are scant.

All 14 hospitals in Allegheny County that were slated to receive shipments of the coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech have gotten their deliveries--according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

Allegheny County’s top public health official is telling residents to give the cold shoulder to businesses that refuse to comply with Pennsylvania’s new COVID-19 restrictions.

Five UPMC employees were the first to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in Pittsburgh Monday. UPMC received its first shipment of the Pfizer vaccine at 9:15 a.m. at Children’s Hospital in Lawrenceville. The first shipment contained 975 doses; the state of Pennsylvania is slated to receive 100 shipments, equaling 97,500 doses total.

Rumors have been circulating for nearly a week that new coronavirus mitigation restrictions in Pennsylavnia would be announced by Governor Tom Wolf. Instead, on Wednesday, Governor Wolf announced that he and members of his security team tested positive for the coronavirus.

Allegheny County passed a depressing milestone on Thursday, reporting more than 1,000 new coronavirus cases for the first time since the start of the pandemic.

A month ago that number seemed distant. 

November was a very bad month for coronavirus infections in Allegheny County.

Long before the coronavirus jumped from an animal to a human to start the global pandemic, western Pennsylvania was already grappling with another health crisis — the drug epidemic.

Case investigators in Allegheny County are keeping up with new coronavirus cases at a higher rate than in other parts of Pennsylvania, but not everyone who tests positive will be contacted by a public health worker.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health is further rationing which coronavirus cases will receive calls from case investigators and contact tracers. 

Citing the rapidly climbing number of coronavirus cases, the Allegheny County Health Department issued a stay-at-home advisory on Wednesday afternoon. 

Over the weekend, Pennsylvania reported 10,000 new cases of the coronavirus, continuing a surge of infections that shows no sign of slowing down.

As COVID-19 cases spike across Pennsylvania, the state Department of Health says members of the public are increasingly reluctant to cooperate with contact tracers – and local public health workers say they are also encountering greater push back.

Hospitals around the county are getting slammed with surges of COVID-19 patients.

The situation is not as dire in Pennsylvania, but as the state continues to see record-breaking coronavirus case numbers on a near daily basis, that could change.

Nights are getting longer, temperatures colder, and the spread of the coronavirus is accelerating across Pennsylvania.

Open enrollment is now underway for Pennsylvanians looking to purchase health insurance coverage for 2021. But instead of the federal marketplace people will be shopping on Pennie, the new state-run exchange.

As the weather gets colder and coronavirus cases continue to climb, Allegheny County’s top public health official says people must change their behavior.

Despite the horrors of COVID-19, trick-or-treating in 2020 probably won’t be too different compared to previous years.