Few covid infections in Allegheny County linked to classroom, health officials say

Few covid-19 infections among K-12 students in Allegheny County have been linked to the classroom, Health Director Dr. Debra Bogen said Wednesday.

Students learning from home have had just as many cases as those learning in-person or through hybrid models, Bogen said during a county Board of Health meeting.

“I think this just gets to the point that schools are relatively safe and low-risk behavior,” she said. “It’s really important that we think about that as we consider our return-to-school policy.”

Bogen said 77% of K-12 cases had close contact with another person who had tested positive for covid-19 , and 65% had contacts within their own households.

Cases in schools peaked in early November, Bogen said, with the vast majority among high school students and adults.

In the county, 45% of K-12 cases were linked to sports teams, 36% to mass gatherings and 14% to parties.

Overall, Bogen said the county has had a decrease in confirmed cases per day and incidence rate per 1,000 residents, as well as decreases in daily hospitalizations, ventilator use and visits to emergency departments countywide in the last seven days. But reporting and testing may have lagged over Christmas and New Year’s, she said, and officials are “still holding our breath to see what happens with the post-holiday anticipated surge.”

The county surpassed 1,000 deaths on Tuesday, which Bogen said was an “inauspicious and terrible milestone.” More than 650 of those deaths were among residents over the age of 80, and 64% of all deaths are in long-term care facilities.

Racial disparities persist in cases and especially in hospitalizations, Bogen said, though they have decreased. When it comes to covid-19 hospitalizations, county data shows that 25% are Black patients – despite Black residents making up only 13% of the county population. Bogen said this could indicate a more severe level of illness among Black individuals contracting the virus in the county.

There have been at least 16,000 doses of covid-19 vaccine distributed in Allegheny County, according to the state’s data dashboard, but Bogen said that is “definitely an undercount.” The state is still in Phase 1A of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice’s guidelines, focusing on health care workers and residents and staff in long-term care facilities. Bogen estimated there are approximately 83,000 Allegheny County residents eligible to receive the vaccine in the first group.

The health department is reaching out to groups and scheduling appointments at its two vaccination sites – one in Downtown Pittsburgh and one at the Monroeville Doubletree Hotel – and has so far vaccinated 700 people. Bogen said the state has approved more organizations in Allegheny County to distribute the vaccine, so immunizations should speed up in the coming weeks.

“I know people are frustrated that we haven’t moved faster,” Bogen said. “I do expect this will get faster and faster over the next couple of weeks and really I see exponential growth knowing all the planning that’s going in.”

The health department will use its flu vaccination program as a template for expanding covid vaccines, Bogen said. There have been more than 1,800 people vaccinated for the flu this season. The county has only had 49 confirmed cases of flu, compared to more than 4,000 last year at this time.

In the meantime, Bogen and other members of the board pleaded with the public to continue following public health guidance, especially given the discovery of a more transmissible variance in the virus.

Lee Harrison, chair of the Board of Health said the variant has not been detected in Allegheny County, yet, but noted that the sample size for the specimens collected in November and December is not large enough to determine whether it is here. Either way, he said, its presence would not change public health messaging: vigilance is still key. Bogen added that if the variance becomes the dominant strain in the region, hospitalizations and deaths will inevitably increase as a result.

“We know that if the variance is in many states, it’s probably in all,” Bogen said. “If it’s not here now, it will be soon.”