BUFFALO, N.Y. — Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz says this week Erie County has seen the highest number of COVID-19 hospitalizations since June 17.
As of July 13, 47 individuals were admitted to Erie County hospitals for COVID-19. Of those hospitalized, eight individuals were in the ICU and four individuals had an airway assist.
Poloncarz says some of the patients may have been hospitalized for a non-COVID condition and were determined to be positive with the virus while hospitalized.
Erie County officials are concerned that most of the new positive cases being reported in this area are from a younger demographic.
The Erie County Department of Health reports that 54 percent of new COVID-19 cases from last week were between the ages of 20 years old and 39 years old. The most amount of COVID cases were reported in the age range of 20 years old to 29 years old.
"The numbers are trending upward. We're not happy about that," Poloncarz said during a press conference Wednesday.
Poloncarz says he doesn't want to see the infection rate go up, saying we must keep the infection rate down otherwise schools will not reopen in the fall.
Erie County Health Commissioner Dr. Gale Burstein says Erie County is seeing more testing in the community, and a small portion of those tests are coming back positive. Burstein says there was a much higher proportion of positive tests this week, having a 2.5 percent positive rate, which is double the percentage from the previous week.
As of Wednesday there were 7,799 total positive COVID-19 cases in Erie County. At this time, 652 residents have died from COVID-19.