Allegheny County Health Dept. to prioritize contact tracing

Allegheny County Health Director Dr. Debra Bogen released a statement Friday saying due to the volume of new COVID-19 cases, the department will prioritize who they contact in regard to contact tracing.

“Currently, the Health Department is not able to call to conduct case investigations for most new cases reported in people aged 6 to 17 and 45 to 59 years. This may change overtime in response to case numbers,” the statement read.

“Over the past 48 hours, record numbers of new cases were reported to the Health Department. The numbers and the rate of increase are alarming. Sadly, we anticipate that the number of cases will continue to rise due to community spread, the holiday, and the expected delayed impact of mitigation efforts.”

The statement says that it can take two weeks for changes in behavior to impact the spread of the virus and for case numbers to decrease, and the department is asking residents to adhere to Governor Tom Wolf’s Stay-At-Home Advisory, only leaving home to go to work, school, receive medical care, to pick up essentials like food or medication, and exercise.

“The coronavirus is spreading through all parts of our county. Anytime we leave our homes, we put ourselves and others at risk. Many people with COVID-19 do not feel sick and do not know they are spreading the virus. They could be unknowingly spreading the virus to you or you could be spreading it to them.

“I am extremely concerned about the strain the spread of the virus will have on our healthcare workers and system. At this moment, we have enough staff and hospital capacity. However, if cases continue to rise at this rate, modeling predicts our healthcare system could be overwhelmed within a month.”

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Cox Media Group