Allegheny County health officials reported another 852 cases of coronavirus Monday.

Of those new cases, 607 were confirmed through 2,361 PCR tests (from Dec. 28 through Sunday), with 245 cases listed as probable.

Even in the wake of news that the latest new cases are a 43% increase from last week’s two-day report (594), health officials described the new numbers as “relatively low” and said they were a result of limited availability of testing last week.

“It likely does not reflect a decrease in the spread of the virus in the community,” the report stated, adding that the Health Department “does anticipate an increase in new cases due to the holidays.”

New cases range in age from 7 months to 100 years with a median age of 40 years.

Allegheny County coronavirus by dayInfogram

The county’s Health Department also said in the report that five more deaths were imported by the state from the Electronic Death Reporting System over the past two days.

The dates of death ranged from Dec. 16-20. Among the new deaths — all associated with long-term care facilities — one person was in their 70s, two in their 80s and two in their 90s.

Since the pandemic began 10 months ago, the county is reporting 982 deaths related to covid-19. However, the county’s death total is different than the Pennsylvania Department of Health, which is reporting 1,055 deaths in the county. No explanation for the difference was given.

The age-breakdown for the new cases — 483 female, 369 male — were:

Ages 0-4: 14 Ages 5-12: 31 Ages 13-18: 39 Ages 19-24: 97 Ages 25-49: 341 Ages 50-64: 178 Ages 65 and over: 152

Over the past two days, Allegheny County registered the highest number of additional cases in Pennsylvania. The next closest was Montgomery County with 451. Philadelphia added 385 new covid cases and Westmoreland was the fourth highest with 359.

According to the state’s covid-19 dashboard, there are 662 Allegheny County residents currently hospitalized for the virus, with 230 of them in the intensive care unit and 83 on respirators. The average number of covid patients in county hospitals has dropped 9.3% since a week ago.

The county reported that, to date, a total of 3,241 residents have been hospitalized for covid.

As of Jan. 4, officials report that 15,491 doses of the covid-19 vaccine — including both Pfizer and Moderna — has been administered in Allegheny County. It is by far the largest number of inoculations in the state.

Health officials define a probable case as one in which a patient has a positive viral antigen test or covid symptoms with a “high-risk exposure” to someone who has been confirmed to have coronavirus.

Since the pandemic began 10 months ago, Allegheny County has reported a total of 56,262 cases of the virus. Of those, 45,844 have been confirmed through a PCR test, with 305,985 testing negative.

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