23-year-old with chronic health issues becomes youngest victim to die locally from COVID-19

ALLEGHENY COUNTY, Pa. — A 23-year-old with chronic, complex health issues died at the end of April from COVID-19. According to the Allegheny County Health Department, the person’s death was mistakenly listed under a neighboring county.

The person becomes the youngest person to die locally of the coronavirus as cases continue increasing. In Allegheny County, 179 people have died so far, including 167 confirmed to have the virus and 12 probable cases.

Health officials reported 19 new cases in the county Tuesday, bringing the total to 2,239 people with the virus since the outbreak began. Nearly 48,000 people have tested negative in Allegheny County out of a population of 1.2 million people.

Statewide, there were 82,696 people who were confirmed to have the coronavirus, 596,407 people have tested negative.

On Tuesday, the Department of Health reported 510 additional positive cases and 38 new deaths for a total of 6,464 deaths.

In nursing and personal care homes, there are 17,294 resident cases of COVID-19, and 3,082 cases among employees, for a total of 20,376 at 669 distinct facilities in 49 counties. Out of total deaths, 4,410 have occurred in residents from nursing or personal care facilities.

The population of Pennsylvania according to the Census Bureau is about 12.8 million people.

“Anytime you see the case increase it’s just a matter of time until you see people who start to get sick from the increase as well,” Dr. Brian Lamb said.

Lamb works in internal medicine at AHN.

“It’s not that this is a change in the virus. It’s not that this is less severe or that summer is making symptoms better, it’s that the age group that is being hit is not the high risk age group,” Lamb said.

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