Allegheny County officials call on all nonessential businesses to close Share Shares Copy Link Copy

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Hi Rich Fitzgerald, County executive here with Dr Deborah Bug and director of the Allegheny County Health Department. We're here to provide an update on the Cove in 19 Pandemic that in our response to it, Dr Bogan, as has already been reported, there are now four confirmed cases of Cove in 19 in Allegheny County. As testing increases drastically in the coming days, we expect that many more cases will be identified. There is still much unknown about this virus and the illness that causes, But there are some things we know already. We know the virus is or will soon be spreading in virtually every community in the U. S. And indeed the world. Given the contagiousness of this virus, we know that it will not slow down on its own until it was infected. Most people in every community we know that among people who are infected, about 80% will not need any medical attention, and we'll get better on their own. However, based on information from other countries, about 20% of those who are infected will need to be hospitalized. Of those hospitalized, about 1/4 will need intensive care and breathing support when we apply these numbers to the three million people who live in south western Pennsylvania, we estimate that tens of thousands will need intensive care and breathing support to survive and recover. Our world class hospitals can only handle a small portion of this number at any one time. This is a very grave situation. The best hope we have for averting this catastrophic outcome is to take aggressive action to dramatically slow down the spread of the virus in our community by slowing down the spread of the virus. The slower rate of spread will allow our hospitals to handle the volume of critically ill patients. To slow the spread of the virus, we must take strong and immediate action. We have seen that when strong action was taken late, as in Wuhan, China and northern Italy, the hospital's got overwhelmed and people died. We have also seen that taking strong action early, as in South Korea and the rest of China, the death rate is much, much lower. Looking at other communities and our own data, southwest Pennsylvania is about 2 to 3 weeks away from overwhelming our hospitals. As a result, we need to take very strong action immediately to save lives. So what are we doing? We've asked our community leaders, beginning with County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, for their assistance. The information that Dr Bogan and the medical experts have given us is chilling, and it's a challenge unlike any we've ever faced before in this region. But one thing I know about people in Pittsburgh is by working together, we can meet any challenge. We came together after 9 11 We came together after the TRIA life shooting. We came together after floods and other natural disasters, and that's what we need to do to protect our families and protect our community. We need to come together, but we need to come together by staying apart, and that's something that we're not really used to doing in this region. But Dr Bogans got some recommendations from the county health department that we need to follow if we are to protect our family and protect our community as part of our county's mitigation strategy to protect residents. We are strongly encouraging nonessential businesses in Allegheny County too close for at least 14 days beginning tomorrow to limit the spread of the virus through personal contact and surfaces. Our goal with this recommendation is to further emphasize social distancing. Of particular concern are those areas where people congregate together. Specific locations that would fall under this recommendation include childcare centers, senior centers, community and recreation centers, gyms including yoga, spin bar and other similar facilities. Hair and nail salons and spas, casinos, bars, concert venues, theaters, sporting event facilities, golf clubs, social clubs, non essential retail facilities, including shopping malls. While restaurants are included in this recommendation, we do encourage those businesses to stay open for carry out and delivery only. This recommendation does not impact supermarkets, pharmacies and gas stations. People are still free to travel. This doesn't mean that we want people to lock themselves away in their homes. For healthy people, that simply means making certain they're practicing social distancing by staying at least six feet away from other people and use good judgment. People that work in smaller group settings can certainly continue to work, provided their space to remain separated from each other, and people can work in alternate work setting such as home. Please continue to do the things that we all know work, practice, strong hygiene. Wash your hands frequently and thoroughly find ways to avoid exposure to others who may have the virus without knowing it. Look out for one another. Check on vulnerable people in your community. Let others know you're there for them if they need help. These are the times in which our humanity is put to the test. Let us all be proud of how we handled this crisis. Thanks, Dr Bogan, and we cannot stress this enough that we need to all work together to prevent the spread of this illness. People who are ill should not go out. They should not go to grocery stores but instead have food delivered or asked friends or family to pick up what they need. They should remain semi isolated so as not to further the spread of any virus or disease. If they need to seek further medical care, they should contact their medical provider by phone by phone and if necessary, contact 911 We recognize the impact that these recommendations will have on our community, their livelihood, star mental health. Their day to day needs were working collaboratively to put systems in place that can meet those challenges. We will also be calling on those of you who are healthy and able to assist those in our community who are not. We hope to have additional announcements regarding those plans in the coming days. Finally, it isn't our intent to scare people or cause panic. It's about being honest with our community and being certain that as many people as possible understand the challenge we're all facing and that we can all play a part in meeting it. We need to protect our families. We need to protect our communities. But we need to protect this region. And by doing the recommendations and the things that we all working together to do, we can get through this together. Thank you.

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