UPMC To Begin Testing All New Patients For Coronavirus

PITTSBURGH, PA - UPMC officials said Tuesday that all incoming patients at its 40 hospitals will be tested for coronavirus, even if they are asymptomatic. At a virtual news briefing, they also provided encouraging numbers regarding the outbreak locally.

But despite the fact that the worst of the outbreak might be over in southwestern Pennsylvania, Dr. Donald Yearly, chair of emergency medicine at UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh, said the health care system still would implement universal testing for the virus.

"UPMC will be testing all of our patients coming in for a procedure for virus presence, and we will continue to test any other - including health care workers - who have symptoms," he said.

UPMC said 118 people system-wide currently are hospitalized with COVID-19. One hundred and thirty patients who were hospitalized have been discharged.

Only two percent of UPMC's hospital beds, eight percent of intensive care unit beds and seven percent of ventilators are being used to treat coronavirus patients.

Suggesting that the outbreak might be winding down in southwestern Pennsylvania, Yearly said, “We’re now on the opposite side of what many predicted to be our worst week."