BUFFALO, N.Y. — The 852 new cases of Covid-19 reported to the Erie County Department of Health on Wednesday represented the highest daily total for the county since the pandemic began, according to County executive Mark R. Poloncarz.
Besides being a sobering reminder of the pandemic, it does not bode well for the County Executive's efforts to get the county out of its state designated "orange zone" classification anytime soon.
Stuck in orange
While the numbers may be up here, it also true that just about every area of the state meets the metrics to be in an orange zone, and with it, to have prohibitions on indoor dining, gatherings, and other restrictions placed on residents and businesses.
Moreover, there are other areas of the state, which have positivity rates equivalent or higher than Erie County, and a lower percentage of hospital beds available, but which are not under the same restrictions.
Those are facts not lost on the County Executive.
"I've talked to the Lt. Governor about this multiple times and I think she feels similarly that it's a little unfair to be treating Erie County differently than some other parts of the state that actually have worse numbers," Poloncarz said.
But according to Poloncarz neither he nor Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul have been able to convince state officials to ease up on the restrictions, and with the dubious mark set on Wednesday for new cases and hospitalizations hovering near an all time high, Poloncarz says it's unlikely the state will relinquish any time soon.
On the vaccine front
"In the past three days the Erie County Health Department has immunized 2,539 people," reported the county's Health Commissioner Dr. Gale R. Burstein.
However, the only people the state is allowing the country to vaccinate at this point are those designated by the state as "eligible," and who are mostly health care and EMS workers.
Burstein predicted on Wednesday that it would be late spring or perhaps early summer before the general population in Erie county becomes eligible ,to receive shots, as New York State continues to muddle through its initial vaccination program which is lagging behind several other states.
Deaths approach 1,300
On a most somber note, the number of deaths in Erie County, labeled as being due to Covid-19, was expected to surpass 1,300 on Wednesday.
Some 81% of the deaths involved people over age 70, with three-quarters of those having been over 80 years old.
