Allegheny County Leaders Continue To Push For Vaccinations Amid Delta Surge
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - While COVID-19 numbers are changing in Allegheny County, the message from leaders remains the same: they want people to get vaccinated.
Last week, about 5,000 people got vaccinated in the county.
Bogen says there is no data on overall breakthrough cases for everyone in the county, however, she says a small amount of data from the company that does community testing for the county shows about 30% of cases in the past 14 days were among people who are fully vaccinated.
Health Director Dr. Bogen pointed to a CDC report from New York state to argue their effectiveness. She says while the study did show a slight decline in effectiveness against infection in New York adults during the delta period, they remained at least 92% effective against hospitalizations both before and during the variant surge.
Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald says the county currently has no plans to mandate masks. He also says the county doesn't plan on following in the steps of New York City, which is requiring vaccines for some indoor activities, or Philadelphia, which is requiring people to wear masks indoors unless the business is requiring vaccines.
Instead, the county is continuing to push for vaccinations.
"Let's continue to get vaccinated. That's gonna be our best path out of this," Fitzgerald said.