Hospitalizations related to COVID-19 have tripled in the last week, according to new data from the Allegheny County Health Department.
For the week ending July 20, there were 145 new virus-related hospitalizations – a significant increase compared with the 41 reported the previous week. The county last reported more than 100 hospitalizations in mid-June.
The increase comes amid a national surge of COVID-19 due to the highly contagious BA.5 variant. Among those to test positive was President Joe Biden, who announced Thursday he had a case of the virus with “mild symptoms.”
Other metrics used to track the COVID-19 pandemic also remain high.
The health department reported 2,156 new cases in the last week, which is a slight decrease compared with the prior week. Because of the widespread use of home tests, those numbers may not be fully accurate. But wastewater monitoring, which reflects virus levels in stool and can show changes even among people who do not get tested, also indicated an increase of 12-14% daily.
Dr. Debra Bogen, the county health department’s director, said in a statement that this week’s higher hospitalization rate is due to the overall higher number of cases.
She added that the increase in cases is most likely being driven by the BA.4 and BA.5 variants of the virus, which descend from the Omicron variant that caused the wave of COVID-19 at the start of the year.
Deaths from COVID-19 decreased slightly in the county, with three reported in the last week, down from 10 the previous week. In all, there have been 3,355 deaths related to COVID-19 in the county.
The county reported that about 82% of all people ages 5 and older have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and nearly 73% are fully vaccinated. About 56% of those eligible for a boosting dose have received one.
While the county’s dashboard does not yet report the number of vaccinations for children under 5, who only became eligible last month, the state health department has started reporting vaccinations among children up to age 4. For that population, state data said 4,969 children in Allegheny County are partially covered, as of Wednesday.
The CDC approved a COVID-19 vaccine from Novavax this week, making it the fourth cleared for use in the United States. Experts hope the vaccine, which is protein-based and more traditionally made than the others currently in use, will encourage more people to get vaccinated.
But as more vaccines and remedies against COVID-19 are approved, waste is becoming an issue. According to the state health department, Allegheny County has nearly 300,000 doses that have gone unused, whether due to spoilage, waste, getting lost or other reasons.
Dr. Bogen said vaccine waste is an “unfortunate reality” in the United States.
“We are fortunate to have ample supply of vaccine; this is not true across the world,” she said. “With time, I hope we will reduce vaccine waste in the U.S., perhaps by switching to single dose systems and matching supply and demand more closely.”
Jon Moss: jmoss@post-gazette.com; Twitter: @mossjon7; 412-263-1542.
First Published: July 21, 2022, 9:21 p.m.
Updated: July 22, 2022, 12:30 p.m.