Allegheny Co. sets new daily record with 300+ new cases reported Tuesday

PITTSBURGH — Allegheny County set a new daily record for number of cases reported with 331 new cases Tuesday, according to the Allegheny County Health Department.

This comes after Monday was the first time in two weeks that the number of new COVID-19 cases was below 100.

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With Tuesday’s new cases, the county’s total is now at 5,364. The new positive cases comes out of 4,536 test results. Positive results are from tests that span June 8 through July 13.

There has been one additional death, bringing the total number of deaths to 199.

There have also been seven new hospitalizations.

The Allegheny County Health Department and the Pennsylvania Department of Health are working with the laboratory to determine why there appears to be a lag in test results and hopes to have additional information for Wednesday’s briefing.

Dr. Marc Itskowitz, of Allegheny Health Network, said delays can lead to problems when trying to pinpoint and contain the virus.

Across the state there are 929 additional positive cases of COVID-19 reported Tuesday, bringing the statewide total to 96,671. Of today’s reported cases, 216 cases were a result of a delay in private lab result reporting. The vast majority did not occur within the past 24 hours. Allegheny County is reporting an increase of 331 cases. However, 186 cases are because of the reporting delay. Therefore, Allegheny County had an increase of 145 cases within the past 24 hours.

County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that more than 4,500 test results had come back to get that seemingly high total.

“When you put it in context of 4,500 tests, it’s actually seven, 7.5%. That’s one of the lowest positivity rates we’ve had over the last two weeks,” he said.

In fact, Monday -- which had only 71 new cases, the lowest number in weeks -- had a higher positivity rate. It was around 10%.

While hospitalizations are on the rise, experts said the hospitals in western Pa. have not been overwhelmed. And the key is to continue to follow CDC guidelines to keep the numbers down.

There are 9,223 total cases in western Pennsylvania. Here is the breakdown by county:

• Allegheny Co.: 5,364 cases
• Armstrong Co.: 88 cases
• Beaver Co.: 870 cases
• Butler Co.: 444 cases
• Clarion Co.: 66 cases
• Fayette Co.: 213 cases
• Forest Co.: 7 cases
• Greene Co.: 72 cases
• Indiana Co.: 169 cases
• Lawrence Co.: 200 cases
• Mercer Co.: 186 cases
• Venango Co.: 46 cases
• Washington Co.: 465 cases
• Westmoreland Co.: 1,033 cases

There are 850,612 patients who have tested negative to date. As of Monday, 6,911 total deaths were attributed to COVID-19.

Allegheny Co. officials say jump in COVID-19 cases is concerning Allegheny Co. officials say jump in COVID-19 cases is concerning

Cox Media Group