Eighty percent of Allegheny County’s adult population is at least partially vaccinated against covid-19, officials said Wednesday, a rate that continues to rise as case counts and positivity rates continue to fall.
“Let’s get that last 20%,” said Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, “so we can all feel safe, we can travel, we can go to work, we can be with family – so we can do all the things we want to be able to do.”
The county has seen 97 new cases in the past seven days, and 28 people total were hospitalized with the virus as of Wednesday.
“We’re in a really good place right now, and the numbers prove it,” said Dr. Debra Bogen, Allegheny County’s health director.
The county is averaging around 13 new cases per day, a number she said is not deceptively low.
“We don’t have artificially low rates as a result of fewer people getting tested,” she said. “People are still getting tested, the difference is that our positivity rate has dropped to about 1%.”
More than that, she said, hospitalizations are also down.
“We know there will always be a certain percentage of people who, when they get this virus, they wind up in the hospital,” Bogen said. “If there were lots of unidentified cases out there, we would be seeing hospitalizations, which we are not.”
Two cases of the delta variant have been identified in the county, Bogen said. One came in a test sample from April and another from May.
Even so, she said, cases remain low here even though the variant has presumably been in the county since April.
If people are concerned, she said, “it’s perfectly fine to wear a mask even though you don’t have to.” She said she agrees with federal guidance that masking isn’t necessary for those who are fully vaccinated and not at a high risk for complications.
Bogen, who is fully vaccinated, said she continues to wear a mask in indoor settings where she doesn’t know who is or is not vaccinated, like grocery and retail stores. In her own home, she said, she will ask others to wear a mask if they are not vaccinated, and she will as well.
