Pennsylvania on Tuesday added 8,545 more COVID-19 cases to its count and reported that 267 more people have died from the virus.

In all, 15,353 Pennsylvanians have succumbed to the virus since the pandemic began. There have been 622,349 cases throughout the commonwealth to date, according to the state Department of Health.

The Allegheny County Health Department reported 1,020 new cases and 41 more deaths. The deaths were recorded between Dec. 3 and Dec. 26 and included 21 people associated with long-term care facilities. 

The victims ranged in age from their 40s to their 90s.

Of the new cases, 329 were confirmed and 691 were marked as probable, with ages ranging from 2 months to 98 years. The tests date back as far as Nov. 24 and as recently as Dec. 28, with 29 of them more than a week old.

This week, Pennsylvania health officials also reported that the hospital staffing crisis has ebbed in the southwest part of the state. Earlier this month, the state warned that a third of the hospitals in the region were going to see staffing problems if virus cases continued to increase.

The department now says 31.6% of the hospitals could experience staffing shortages, down from the more than 33% that had triggered a warning.

New cases per day have begun to drop since the state instituted new mitigation measures earlier this month. Those measures are set to expire Monday.

But health officials also have warned that this week’s case counts might be affected by fewer people being tested over the holiday weekend and that a surge could be coming due to Christmas and New Year’s gatherings.

More information can be found on the county’s website and the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s dashboard.

First Published: December 29, 2020, 4:30 p.m.