Allegheny County reports 61 new coronavirus cases, 2 new deaths

Allegheny County on Saturday recorded 61 new coronavirus cases and two additional deaths.

The county now has a total of 9,817 cases of covid-19 and 306 deaths.

All of Saturday’s cases have been confirmed.

Officials also reported 7 new hospitalizations, bringing that total to 922 since the virus was first reported in Allegheny County.

The recent batch of samples comprising 956 tests were collected between Aug. 9 and Aug. 21. They yielded a positivity rate of 6.3%.

Recent reports of new cases have been encouraging and generally trending downward.

Since the start of August, the county has only seen four days of triple-digit case counts when 132, 100, 114 and 100 cases were reported on Aug, 4, Aug. 6, Aug. 13 and Thursday, respectively.

Compare that 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.

Saturday’s cases range in age from 5 months to 96 years, with a median of 31 years old.

The deaths were attributed to a person in their 50s and another in their 60s; both died on Aug. 19.

Both deaths were associated with long-term care facilities.