Aug 5, 2020 2 min read

Allegheny County is still experiencing significant community spread of COVID-19 even through mitigation efforts have been drawing fewer positive cases of the virus in recent days, its health department said Wednesday.

The spread of the disease is evident because many people who carry the virus in the county can’t identify where they were exposed to the disease, Allegheny Health Director Debra Bogen said.

“We’re at war with the virus,” county Executive Rich Fitzgerald said at a briefing Wednesday.

Bogen said she was pleased to announce that new COVID-19 cases have been below 100 a day for four of the past five days.

She said residents appear to be sticking to efforts to stay home and wear masks. Out-of-state travel also appeared to be on the decline in the county, where virus cases began to surge shortly after the economy reopened in early June.

Also of concern to Bogen was that 9% of the tests in July were returned positive. That percentage has dropped to 7.5% in the last two weeks, but it needs to fall below 5%.

“We as a community need to strive to get that lower,” Bogen said.

Allegheny reported five new deaths from COVID-19 Wednesday as positive cases continued to climb locally and statewide.

Washington County added a dozen new cases Wednesday, taking its total since March to 785. Greene County saw no new cases, and Fayette County registered 10 new cases to its total of 431. There were no new deaths reported Wednesday in those counties.

Pennsylvania announced 705 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday, 70 of which came from Allegheny County.