Allegheny Co. health officials say they’re seeing asymptomatic spread

Allegheny County Health Department Director Dr. Debra Bogen confirmed contract tracing is being conducted on every new case.

Bogen said two thirds of new cases are people 19-49. She adds most don’t know where they got it from, which indicates community spread.

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Bogen said they’re seeing asymptomatic spread in Allegheny County.

“We don’t really know who’s sick and who’s well,” Bogen said.

They’ve seen positive cases from bars and people returning from out of state trips, but they haven’t seen any hot spots in the county, Bogen said.

While young people are less likely to become seriously ill, the increase in cases is still a cause for concern.

“The problem with increasing numbers, even among our young people, is that as you get more and more cases like they had in NYC even young people have succumb to Covid-19. It’s sort of an odds game, the more people who get it the more you get the rare outcome or the bad outcome,” Bogen said.

There have now been 184 deaths. Of those, 172 are confirmed to have been caused by COVID-19 and 12 were probably caused by COVID-19. The deaths have been people between the ages of 23 and 103.

The breakdown of cases by age group is as follows:

• 0-4: 20 (1%)
• 5-12: 28 (1%)
• 13-18: 39 (2%)
• 19-24: 175 (7%)
• 25-49: 788 (34%)
• 50-64: 573 (25%)
• 65+: 661 (29%)

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Of the cases, 1,216 have been female and 1,068 have been male.

There are 372 people who have been or are currently being hospitalized, an increase of two since Tuesday.

“If the number of cases increases, we are prepared and we’re more prepared than we were in the beginning of March,” Bogen said.