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Amid rising COVID numbers, New York State will target neighborhoods of concern

Numbers of COVID cases continue to tick up from when they reached a low point both locally and across the state just three weeks ago.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Numbers of COVID-19 cases continue to tick up from when they reached a low point both locally and across New York State just three weeks ago.

This also has experts stressing the importance of getting vaccinated and the state unveiling a new strategy to target neighborhoods of concern.

In a Tweet sent Monday morning, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz noted that the number of patients admitted to hospitals with COVID has nearly tripled in in the county just over two weeks.

That may sound startling, but according to an accompanying chart he provided, it reveals the number of current patients to be just 27 county wide, two of those are serious enough to warrant treatment in an ICU.

NYS Gov. Andrew Cuomo also spoke Monday about the rising number of cases statewide. 

"We had more than 1,900 positive cases (on Sunday). How does that compare to where we were? Last month (on June 26) we had 346," Cuomo said. 

No Indication of A Return To Prior Rules

Despite the uptick, Cuomo gave no indication that the state was looking to re-institute any of the mandates or rules it once had in place which left millions of New Yorkers unemployed, businesses on the brink of bankruptcy, and interrupted the lives of state residents.

Cuomo also claimed the vast majority of the new cases, and an even higher percentage of  hospitalizations, were among the unvaccinated.

"What we are looking at is a pandemic of the unvaccinated," Cuomo said.

"A Pandemic of the Unvaccinated"

"I believe Governor Cuomo is correct," said Dr. Thomas Russo, an infectious disease specialist at the University at Buffalo's Jacob's School of Medicine.

"Greater than 97% of people in the hospital are unvaccinated and greater than 99 percent of deaths in this country are the unvaccinated," Russo said.

Indeed, according to the Erie County Department of Health, out of the 190 COVID fatalities in the county between  April 1, 2021 and July 22, 2021, 182 of those deaths (or 96%) were persons who were not fully immunized prior to infection.

New York State unveiled a new strategy on Monday which Cuomo said would specifically target communities that have higher than average rate of COVID spread, and a lower than average rate of vaccination. 

A Targeted Approach

Cuomo announced the spending of $15 million in taxpayer money, which will be doled out to a handful of community groups which serve those targeted area to encourage residents to get their shots.

The state has identified 117 zip codes in particular, which meet the criteria of concern of having both above average rates of positivity and below average rates of vaccination.                

92 of those are in New York City and Long Island, so that is where the lion's share of the funds will be distributed.

Only one area identified by the state is in Erie County, and that is the 14215 zip code, which encompasses a large portion of Buffalo's east side and a portion of Cheektowaga.

Meanwhile, the Erie County Health Department confirms that nearly half of the county's 190 deaths since April, were of people from "a single Buffalo zip code", although it did not confirm which one. 

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