The Pennsylvania Health Department reported more than 2,000 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, the highest daily increase since early April.
State officials, however, said some of the new cases should have been recorded the day before.
“The number of cases reported today is one of the highest numbers reported since the beginning of the pandemic. However, there was a faulty data file sent to the (state) system by a laboratory earlier this week, which prevented some of the lab results from being properly reported,” state officials said in a statement. The faulty data file also affected some individual county totals.
The state said it recorded 2,063 new cases of the disease, for a total of 188,360. The last time the state reached more than 2,000 daily cases was April 8, with 2,059 new infections.
The state’s death toll reached 8,592 after 30 more deaths were reported Thursday. Five of the latest deaths occurred in the Pittsburgh region — two in Westmoreland County, one each in Allegheny, Beaver and Fayette.
Southwestern Pennsylvania accounted for nearly 400 of the latest cases, according to Thursday’s figures.
The Allegheny County Health Department reported 133 new cases of COVID-19 and one more virus-related death, continuing a trend of 100-plus daily infections since early October. The latest cases bring the county total to 14,529 since the pandemic began in March.
Allegheny health officials said the additional death was on Oct. 19 and involved a person 70 or older who was a resident of a long-term care facility. A total of 417 people in the county have died of the respiratory disease.
Those newly infected ranged in age from 3 to 96 years, with a median age of 40. Of the new positive cases, 109 were confirmed from 2,071 PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests. Of the 24 probable cases, 16 were from positive antigen tests. The tests were taken from Oct. 13 to 21.
On Wednesday, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald and Debra Bogen, the county health director, said residents would be able to safely participate in activities on Halloween and Election Day.
“Poll workers will be wearing face masks for 13 hours” on Nov. 3, he said. “We can’t require voters to wear face masks but we strongly encourage it.”
They stressed that outdoor Halloween activities are safer than indoor activities and face masks should be worn by people giving out treats as well as those collecting them.
Dr. Bogen advised residents to adopt a four-part strategy to mitigate the spread of the viral disease:
• Test widely, and that means people who have symptoms and people who have been in contact with someone who has the virus.
• Isolate all infected people.
• Find everyone who has been in contact with a case.
• Quarantine for 14 days if you are sick or have come in contact with someone who is.
“With your help we can box in the virus,” Dr. Bogen said.
People who are in quarantine can call 211 for help, she said.
Dr. Rachel Levine, the state health director, is urging Pennsylvanians to download the COVID Alert PA app to receive notifications when you've been in close contact with someone who later tests positive for COVID-19, or anonymously notifies other residents if you test positive. The app uses the Exposure Notification System (ENS) provided by Apple and Google.
Here is the total number of positive cases reported recently in Western Pennsylvania:
• Allegheny: 14,529 (up 133 from Wednesday)
• Beaver: 2,207 (up 43)
• Butler: 1,504 (up 41)
• Fayette: 957 (up 12)
• Greene: 219 (up 2)
• Washington: 1,754 (up 36)
• Westmoreland: 3,820 (up 117)
Here is the total number of deaths reported recently in Western Pennsylvania:
• Allegheny: 417 (up 1 from Wednesday; the state is reporting 397)
• Beaver: 139 (up 1)
• Butler: 27 (no change)
• Fayette: 13 (up 1)
• Greene: 1 (no change)
• Washington: 34 (no change)
• Westmoreland: 78 (up 2; the Westmoreland County coroner, whose numbers were last updated Oct. 20, is reporting 68.)
Here’s a look at demographic data in Allegheny County based on data reported recently:
Cases by age:
• 0-9: 393 (3%)
• 10-19: 1,352 (9%)
• 20-29: 3,594 (25%)
• 30-39: 2,138 (15%)
• 40-49: 1,586 (11%)
• 50-59: 1,874 (13%)
• 60-69: 1,471 (10%)
• 70 and over: 1,988 (14%)
Deaths by age:
• 20-29: 1 (0%)
• 30-39: 1 (0%)
• 40-49: 2 (0%)
• 50-59: 17 (4%)
• 60-69: 48 (12%)
• 70 and over: 347 (83%)
For additional information on Allegheny County data, visit the county’s COVID-19 Dashboard. More information on statewide results and data for other counties in the state can be found on the Pennsylvania Health Department’s website.
First Published: October 22, 2020, 4:14 p.m.