Local doctors not seeing the same death, hospitalization rate with coronavirus as they were before

PITTSBURGH — UPMC doctors said the majority of new COVID-19 cases are in young people, and those cases aren’t as severe.

Thursday marked the lowest COVID-19 case increase in Allegheny County this week with 158 new cases, 12 more hospitalizations and no new deaths.

>>>MORE DETAILS: No new COVID-19 deaths reported in Allegheny County, lowest increase in cases this week

“Our testing data indicates these cases are largely linked to younger people who contracted the virus while traveling or while socializing without masks or proper distance,” said Dr. Graham Snyder, UPMC Medical Director of Infection Prevention.

At a news conference Thursday, Snyder and other officials said the average age of COVID-19 patients is under 30, and because of that, the cases are not as severe.

“Despite more people testing positive, often younger people, we are not seeing the same pattern of increase in severe cases,” Senior Medical Director Dr. Donald Yealy said.

In the UPMC health system, 118 people were hospitalized, and the average age of those people was over 60. Doctors are not seeing the same mortality rate and hospitalizations rate, they announced Thursday. The rate of asymptomatic people, patients confirmed to have COVID-19 but showing no symptoms was 0.27%.

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Doctors speaking at the news conference again reiterated the advice from other health officials: Wear a mask and stay home when sick. They also said that they are not seeing the same increase in severe cases as in previous months, and in looking at samples from patients, there appears to be less virus inside a person.

What is ‘herd immunity,’ and how does it apply to COVID-19? While the world waits for a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, there are questions if the virus can be defeated another way.

Cox Media Group