May 12, 2021 2 min read

Allegheny County is seeing some of the lowest daily COVID-19 cases since October as its vaccination rate rises to levels better that many other areas.

The people in Allegheny who have been dying from the virus were not vaccinated against COVID-19, providing evidence the vaccines are safe and working, Allegheny Health Director Debra Bogen said Wednesday.

“We’re not out of the woods,” Bogen said, while warning against the unknowns as crowd sizes increase Monday and mitigation, excluding mask wearing, is about to be lifted in Pennsylvania on Memorial Day.

“I wish I had a crystal ball,” she said during the county’s weekly briefing on the pandemic.

Seventy percent of adults in Allegheny have received at least one dose of the vaccines, county Executive Rich Fitzgerald said.

Nearly 50% of adults in that county are considered fully vaccinated against the virus, Fitzgerald said.

“We’re doing much, much better than other parts of the state and other parts of the country,” he said.

Allegheny is averaging about 170 new virus cases a day.

The state announced 52 new virus deaths Wednesday, including four in Allegheny. There were no new COVID-19 deaths in Washington, Greene or Fayette counties.

Pennsylvania reported 2,179 new virus cases, bringing its cumulative total to 1,179,251 since March 2020.

Washington County reported 45 new virus cases, taking its total to 17,358. Greene added two cases to its total that inched to 3,198. Fayette reported 34 new cases, bringing its total to 12,798.