ERIE COUNTY, N.Y. — Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz and Erie County Department of Health Commissioner Dr. Gale Burstein provided an update Wednesday afternoon regarding the continued increase in COVID-19 cases in the county.
During the press conference, Dr. Burstein stressed that Erie County residents should wear masks and avoid in-person social gatherings, both big and small, to further stop the spread of COVID-19.
Dr. Burstein said that based on a current projection from the University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, if Western New Yorkers do not radically change their behavior soon, hospital admissions will quadruple by the end of January.
"We need to do something radical very, very soon to inspire people to dramatically change their behavior or else we'll be going down a path that we really don't want to go down," Dr. Burstein said.
Poloncarz pointed out that some areas in Erie County that had the highest positivity rates last week were areas that haven't had a lot of cases in the past. Some of the areas listed include Wales, Irving, Marilla, Alden and the Black Rock and Riverside neighborhoods in the City of Buffalo.
The county executive says the increase in cases is the result of "consistent and persistent community spread."
According to recent data, Poloncarz says 20 to 35 percent of confirmed COVID-19 cases in 10 Erie County zip codes with the highest case totals came from the same household. Poloncarz called this "family spread," saying people are getting sick with COVID-19 and are then passing it along to their family members.
"We're not telling you necessarily to wear a mask in your house when you're with your family," Poloncarz said. "But you need to understand if you're out in public and you're around other people who don't wear masks, there's a chance you can catch it and then spread it to your own family member."
Poloncarz says this is a big worry in regard to Thanksgiving, adding that Erie County has already started to receive cases where people believe they got sick during a Thanksgiving gathering. Poloncarz says they believe the "big spike" from the holiday is expected to happen over the next five to seven days.
With this information comes a reminder from Dr. Burstein telling residents not to go out if you feel sick, also adding that you shouldn't come in contact with your other family.
"If you feel sick, don't go out," Dr. Burstein said. "Don't go to work. Don't go to school. Don't send your kids to school. If you feel sick — we've seen just from this past week from our rapid testing data, that there is at least a one out of five chance that if you have any type of respiratory symptoms, even mild, that you could have COVID-19."
According to the county, 432 people were admitted to Western New York hospitals on November 30. Of those hospitalized, 368 were in Erie County, which is the highest number to date. Meanwhile, 61 individuals in Erie County hospitals were in the ICU, 35 of whom needed an airway assist.