by PublicSource reporters
The Allegheny County Health Department [ACHD] reported 45 new COVID-19 infections on Wednesday, bringing the total case count to 2,284 since March 14 when officials announced the first cases in the county. Health officials also announced two additional hospitalizations and five COVID-related deaths. To date, there have been 184 deaths and 372 past and present hospitalizations.
- While Allegheny County has added more than 40 infections to its count on two of the past three days, UPMC officials on Wednesday said hospitalization rates and ICU admissions are better indicators. “Younger, healthier people who are becoming infected may be helping build our collective immunity, something that happens in any viral pandemic,” Dr. Donald Yealy, UPMC senior medical director and chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh, said in a news conference on Zoom Wednesday
- Roughly 17% of COVID-19 tests at UPMC facilities in Allegheny County were Black patients, Yealy said. (Blacks represent 13% of the population in county, according to U.S. Census estimates.) About 22% of COVID-admitted patients in Allegheny County are Black.
A pedestrian in Oakland wears a face mask on April 6. (Photo by Kimberly Rowen/PublicSource)
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