Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Contact 90.5 WESA with a story idea or news tip: news@wesa.fm

PA Revises Death Toll Upward Again, But Other Numbers Paint Brighter Picture

Matt Rourke
/
AP
A person wearing a protective face mask as a precaution against the coronavirus walks in Allentown, Pa., Tuesday, May 12, 2020.

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.

Nearly three decades after leaving home for college, Chris Potter now lives four miles from the house he grew up in -- a testament either to the charm of the South Hills or to a simple lack of ambition. In the intervening years, Potter held a variety of jobs, including asbestos abatement engineer and ice-cream truck driver. He has also worked for a number of local media outlets, only some of which then went out of business. After serving as the editor of Pittsburgh City Paper for a decade, he covered politics and government at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He has won some awards during the course of his quarter-century journalistic career, but then even a blind squirrel sometimes digs up an acorn.