Allegheny County surpasses 50,000 coronavirus cases, 850 deaths

Allegheny County on Saturday recorded a 48-hour total of 1,209 new coronavirus cases.

Officials reported 657 cases on Christmas Day and 552 cases the day after.

The report shows two days of dramatic dips from Thursday’s total of 912. On Wednesday, 830 cases were reported.

The county has reported eight days of 1,000 or more new cases.

Six new deaths were reported Saturday, lifting the county’s toll at 853.

December has recorded 344 — or just over 40% — of covid-related deaths in Allegheny County.

Thursday’s report included 53 deaths, a high for the week. Throughout the course of the week, 76 deaths were reported.

Of the newly reported deaths, two people were in their 70s; three were in their 80s and one person was in their 90s.

Three deaths were associated with long-term care facilities.

The dates of death occurred on Wednesday and Thursday.

The county has had 50,859 cases of covid-19, according to data from the Allegheny County Health Department.

Of the new cases, 1,152 are confirmed, while 57 are listed as probable.

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.

The recent batch of samples comprising 3,973 tests were collected from Nov. 18 through Friday. Forty-eight of those positive tests were more than a week old, officials said.

The tests yielded a positivity rate of about 29%. Saturday’s cases range in age from 1 week to 98 years old, with a median age of 48.

Twenty-one new hospitalizations were reported during the 48-hour period. Officials say 3,076 people have been hospitalized — 293 more than this time last week — since the virus was first reported in Allegheny County on March 14.

Throughout these 26 days of December, the county has amassed 22,455 new cases. This represents 44% of Allegheny County’s cases.

That averages 863 per day (down from an avg. of 910 last week) and is on pace to log 26,773 (28,210 last week) cases for the month.

In the entirety of October, the county saw 3,448 new cases of the virus, which was an increase of 72.3% from September (2,001).

In November, officials recorded 12,608 new cases; a nearly 80% increase from the county’s total cases leading up to that point.