Allegheny County announces 68 new coronavirus cases, 26 new hospitalizations

Allegheny County on Saturday recorded 68 new coronavirus cases and 26 new hospitalizations.

The county now has a total of 10,709 cases of covid-19, according to data from the Allegheny County Health Department.

The new hospitalizations bring that total to 1,026 since the virus was first reported in Allegheny County on March 14.

No new deaths were reported, leaving the total at 349.

Fifty-five of the new cases are confirmed, while 13 are listed as probable.

The recent batch of samples comprising 910 tests were collected between Aug. 26 and Sept. 4. They yielded a positivity rate of almost 7.5%.

Saturday’s cases range in age from 6 to 87, with a median of 27 years old.

Recent reports of new cases, though encouraging, have been up-and-down, but generally creeping upward.

In this first week of September, the county has seen one day of triple-digit cases (Thursday). Officials reported 92 cases Friday.

In August, the county saw four days of triple-digit case counts when 132, 100, 114 and 100 cases were reported on Aug. 4, Aug. 6, Aug. 13 and Aug. 27, respectively.

Compare these past five weeks to July, in which all but two days had more than 100 cases, with 17 days having 150 or more, nine days with more than 200 and a record-setting day of 331 cases on July 14.

The death total from July 1 to Saturday is 166 of 349 total — which accounts for nearly 48% of the county’s reported deaths. From March 14 to June 30, there were 183 deaths.