Pittsburgh hospital officials say coronavirus infection is on the decline

Doctors at the Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) said Thursday that the coronavirus virus and infection rates are declining.

“The virus is likely to change,” Dr. Donald Yaley said during a news conference Thursday. “Some forms suggest energy is depleted.”

Yelley said that since March, UPMC has successfully treated more than 500 patients with coronavirus and fewer patients need ventilators to breathe.

People seem to contract the virus easily, and cases are less frequent than when the infection first started, he explained.

“We tested 30,000, the positive rate was less than 4 percent. We tested 8,000 people who had no symptoms and only 21 came back positive,” Yaley said.

He said the risk of a car accident on the Pennsylvania Turnpike is “higher than the risk of testing positive for asymptomatic COVID symptoms.”

Dr David Ness, chief medical officer of UPMC Senior Communities, said Thursday that zeros were recorded at UBMC’s long-term care and senior care facilities, thanks to the actions taken by hospital medical officers.

“We have followed the basics of infection control that others have tried to follow,” Ness said. “Focusing on Surveillance of Patients With Signs and Symptoms.”

“We can’t test the way out of COVID-19,” he said. “Testing is a tool, not a treatment.”

Researchers at UPMC don’t know why they see lower infection rates, but said this could be due to a variety of factors, including weather and “viruses vary with time.”

“Ultimately, we make the best decisions about who needs what kind of care,” Yaley added.

Elsewhere in the world, Central and South America now see the largest number of infections in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Haiti, Mexico and Peru, according to the United Nations.