State virus total rises above 7,000

By KRISTIE LINDEN

klinden@yourmvi.com

More than 1,200 new Pennsylvanians tested positive for the coronavirus by Thursday afternoon, bringing the state total to 7,016. Ninety have died. 

The majority of cases in the state have affected people age 25-49, with 20% of them being hospitalized. Nineteen percent of the patients are 65 or older and 50% of those patients are hospitalized.

Allegheny County saw a rise of 63 patients with a total now of 419. The county hasn’t had any deaths from the illness since the two reported in the last full week of March.

Fayette County added one case and now has 15, with one death.  

Washington added three new cases, bringing the total up to 38, and Westmoreland saw an increase of a dozen cases overnight and how has 84. Neither county has reported a death from the virus.

There are now just five of the state’s 67 counties with no reported cases of coronavirus.

Allegheny
County

The Central Outreach Wellness Center has suspended its drive-up coronavirus testing indefinitely, staff said Thursday.

Alexander Young, director of marketing, said that as covid-19 spreads, testing becomes less of a necessity.

“As more people become infected, it’s less important to know who has it and who doesn’t and to treat it and social distance,” he said. “Not everybody needs to be tested.”

Central Outreach, a North Shore-based nonprofit, had been offering testing at its Aliquippa locations and at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium. Young said anyone without a primary care physician or health insurance can still contact the center for testing.

Young said the center is offering tests for first responders, medical professionals and other essential employees.

The county has created an interactive map that breaks down the location of various free food distribution sites during the pandemic. Some sites are outside of the county, but still in the region. 

It’s broken down into groups, including some that are for students only or just for seniors. There are food pantries, churches and other locations.

New sites can submit information to be included and those in need can click on various places to find out specifics about each location’s requirements, if any.

The map can be found at www.alleghenycounty.us.Click the COVID-19 banner at the top of the page, scroll down and click on the box marked Information for Residents. Toward the bottom of that page, there is a box marked Help for Residents and the food distribution map link is listed on that page.

Westmoreland County

Furloughs of hundreds of Westmoreland County employees will begin at the end of the workday today, but the final number was still in flux Thursday.

Commissioners last week announced that budget strains caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic prompted a suspension of non-essential government operations and job cuts.

“The final number will be between 460 and 500 employees,” Commissioner Sean Kertes said.

Furloughed workers will continue to receive health benefits, and most are expected to return their jobs once commissioners order county operations to resume in full after the pandemic has subsided.

The county started screening public safety employees for coronavirus symptoms and could soon expand the program to include courthouse staff and visitors.

Commissioners approved a month-long contract with Amerisafe Group to furnish trained employees to conduct screenings at the county’s public safety headquarters, where a staff of 52 dispatchers man phones and coordinate first responders.

“Our priority is to keep the virus from attacking our 911 center,” said Public Safety Director Roland Mertz. “The front line of this, aside from hospitals and first responders, is 911 dispatchers.”

Dispatchers will have screeners take their temperatures upon reporting for duty. Anyone with a fever will be sent home, Mertz said.

Temperature screenings are only part of the safety precautions put in place at the 911 center. Mertz said partitions have been installed to separate work stations, and plans are in place to move the dispatching operation off site should a virus outbreak occur among staff at the current facility.

Medical screenings, conducted by in-house staff at Westmoreland Manor, the county-owned nursing home, as well as at the jail and juvenile detention center have been ongoing for the last several weeks, commissioners said.

Trib Total Media News Wire Service contributed to this report.