Allegheny County officials announce fourth COVID-19 surge

PITTSBURGH — Channel 11 heard from Dr. Deborah Bogen on Wednesday, who explained that Allegheny County is in the middle of the fourth COVID-19 surge since the pandemic started.

Dr. Bogen said positivity rates have now increased to 8.8 percent. The health department confirmed 418 new cases on Wednesday. Dr. Bogen added that she doesn’t expect cases to go down throughout the next several weeks. She attributed much of the cause to large gatherings combined with no social distancing or masks. New variants in the county are also to blame.

“It’s with a heavy heart that we are well into our fourth wave of heavy cases,” Dr. Bogen explained. “Case counts continue to increase and back where we are in early January and case counts have set a record for 2021.”

However, there is a silver lining to this update as Dr. Bogen mentioned two mass vaccination clinics that are scheduled for this month. Those clinics will be using the single dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine.

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