Two new COVID deaths across four-county area Tuesday
Even as the United States passed the grim milestone Monday of 500,000 deaths attributed to COVID-19, the rates of infection, hospitalization and death all appear to be slowly trending downward, and that was reflected in the latest data released Tuesday by the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
Only one new death was reported in Allegheny County and one new death was logged in Fayette County. Allegheny has seen 1,697 people die since last March as a result of the coronavirus, while Fayette has seen 261 people die due to the virus. No new deaths were recorded in either Washington or Greene counties, which have seen 257 and 32 fatalities, respectively.
Washington added 30 new positive cases, bringing its total over the last 11 months to 13,574. Greene County added 16 new cases. Its cumulative total now stands at 2,638. Fayette County added 28 positive cases, for a total of 10,339. There were 274 new cases in Allegheny County. All told, 75,250 cases have been recorded in the county since last March.
Across all of Pennsylvania, 2,830 additional cases were reported, bringing the statewide total to 917,848. There were 97 new deaths, for a total of 23,711.
Meanwhile, Gov. Tom Wolf said Tuesday that the state has reached what he described as “an important milestone,” with more than 600 skilled nursing facilities having received first and second doses of the vaccine, and 315,000 doses have been administered among all long-term care facilities.
As of Monday, more than 2 million doses of vaccine have been administered across Pennsylvania, with 1.4 million residents having received a first dose, and 559,644 receiving a second, which means they are now fully vaccinated.
Wolf said, “I know that the wait for more vaccine to be made available is long and hard for many Pennsylvanians, but we are making good progress vaccinating the most vulnerable among us … The progress we are making with the vaccine gives us all hope for a brighter future.”