Allegheny County’s daily coronavirus case count is still on the rise; it now regularly exceeds 400 new infections per day.
At a Wednesday press briefing, county health department director Dr. Debra Bogen said the case rate is where it was in mid-January. She attributes the upswing to more infectious variants, and people not adhering to mitigation strategies.
“Currently there are outbreaks among high school and college sports, small and large events, workplaces and others,” she said. “There’s an outbreak associated with a large party among children outside of school, where apparently there was not social distancing or mask wearing.”
As a result of this increase, cases of severe COVID-19 are also going up. State data show there are currently more 200 COVID patients hospitalized at Allegheny County facilities.
“Short of everyone being vaccinated,” Bogen said, “the only way this pandemic will subside is if we all adhere to the tried-and-true mitigation strategies of face masking, keeping physically distant, and limiting the size of social gatherings.”
According to state data and numbers from the Pittsburgh’s VA health system, roughly 22% of Allegheny County adults are fully vaccinated. Nearly as many are partially vaccinated.
Also on Wednesday the Pennsylvania Department of Health announced that all Pennsylvanians who are 16 and older will be eligible for the vaccine beginning April 19.
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