PITTSBURGH — The director of the Allegheny County Health Department reports more children have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in the first 11 days of August than in the entire month of July.
Dr. Debra Bogen said during a news conference Wednesday said 25 children aged 0-4 were diagnosed with COVID-19 in July. In the first third of August, that number is 67; 85 children aged 5-12 were diagnosed with COVID-19 last month. This month, 121 children tested positive. Bogen said weekly reports from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospitalization Association on COVID-19 and children showed roughly 1% of all children who test positive for the virus are hospitalized.
“As cases rise among children, so will the number of hospitalizations,” Bogen said. “We really don’t the long-term effects of the virus on children and their long-term health. As case numbers increase, you’re going to see it’s proportionate, so you’re going to see more children hospitalized and unfortunately, in small, tiny numbers, but more children will die from this infection.”
She said daily case numbers, hospitalizations and the positivity rate have all increased.
“Over the past week, our daily average has nearly doubled to about 150 new confirmed and probable cases,” Bogen said.
Wednesday’s case numbers
The Allegheny County Health Department is reporting nearly 400 new COVID-19 cases and five new deaths from the virus over the last 48 hours.
Officials said there were 377 new cases reported across all age groups. Of those 188 are confirmed and 189 are probable.
The five new deaths included one person in the 25-49 age group and four in the 65+ age group.
Across Pennsylvania, there were 1,811 additional positive cases of COVID-19 over the last 24 hours. 847 people are hospitalized with the virus, including 204 people in the intensive care unit.
The state Department of Health said that trends show an increase in cases and hospitalizations over the last two weeks.
Nearly 64% of all Pennsylvanians age 18 and older are fully vaccinated, according to health officials.
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