COVID-19 cases continue to climb, Allegheny Co. sets new daily record with 110 new positive cases

PITTSBURGH — The number of COVID-19 cases in Allegheny County continued to climb Wednesday, after a new daily record of 110 positive cases was reported.

This comes after the previous daily record in new positive cases was set Tuesday when Allegheny County reported 109 cases. There are now a total of 2,870 positive cases in Allegheny County.

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The majority of the cases are in people ages between the ages of 19-49.

Health officials said there has been one additional death, bringing the total of people who have died to 187. There has been an increase of 4 hospitalizations, bringing the total number people to 397.

Across the state there are 636 additional positive cases of COVID-19, bringing the statewide total to 87,242.

There are 5,376 total cases in western Pennsylvania. Here is the breakdown by county:

• Allegheny Co.: 2,870 cases
• Armstrong Co.: 76 cases
• Beaver Co.: 678 cases
• Butler Co.: 311 cases
• Clarion Co.: 35 cases
• Fayette Co.: 117 cases
• Forest Co.: 7 cases
• Greene Co.: 41 cases
• Indiana Co.: 111 cases
• Lawrence Co.: 103 cases
• Mercer Co.: 140 cases
• Venango Co.: 19 cases
• Washington Co.: 230 cases
• Westmoreland Co.: 675 cases

There are 6,687 total deaths attributed to COVID-19, an increase of 38 new deaths. There are 689,562 patients who have tested negative to date.

In a press conference Wednesday afternoon, health department director Dr. Debra Bogen said she doesn’t expect these high daily case totals to decline any time soon.

“I don’t expect these numbers to decline for at least a couple of weeks,” she said.

This comes hours after Gov. Tom Wolf ordered masks to be required in all outdoor and indoor settings where social distancing is not possible.

Bogen pointed to two primary reasons for the spike in new COVID-19 cases in Allegheny County: younger people who traveled out of state, and those who visited local bars or restaurants around the county. That includes popular vacation spots like Myrtle Beach, Hilton Head and places in Florida.

She strongly recommends anyone who travels to a hotspot to self-quarantine for 14 days, but at this point Bogen said she is not mandating that.

“This change in our case numbers from near zero to over 100 in just a few weeks should really be a wake-up call that we have asymptomatic spread in our community,” she said.

One place Bogen said where spread has been minimal is during protests.

Of the 712 new cases since June 20, Bogen said only four people told contact tracers that they had attended a protest -- and two of those people also attended bars and restaurants.

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