50% of COVID-19 cases are spread between people who know each other, Allegheny health officials say

ALLEGHENY COUNTY, Pa. — Allegheny County leaders gave their daily update on COVID-19 Wednesday.

Experts said numbers are steady, but they did caution that 50% of cases are spread between people who know each other.

In fact, contact tracers have apparently linked a teen to an outbreak that has spread the virus to nearly 30 people over the past few weeks.

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With kids now back in school, officials noted between September and October, only one child in the county has been hospitalized with COVID-19.

But it’s still unclear what the long-term effects could be on children, and as mentioned, they can still spread it to their parents and grandparents.

Officials also reacted to the gathering limit changes that Gov. Wolf announced Tuesday, which now allow more people to congregate in Pennsylvania, with the limit based on a venue’s capacity.

They said people need to remain vigilant about mask wearing, social distancing and hand washing.

“If people continue to cooperate, we know we can do a lot of functions safely and we can do functions that could even open up even more. And if we don’t, then I’m sure the governor will go the other way and start to close things down,” said Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald.

Officials also mentioned the new community test in McKeesport.

Testing numbers are increasing there, and to accommodate a variety of schedules, they are adjusting hours for the next two weeks.

Struggling families, businesses still waiting for COVID-19 relief

Cox Media Group