BUFFALO, N.Y. — Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz is not happy that the Finger Lakes region has been able to start to reopen, even though it has seen a recent uptick in hospitalizations.
He also says there are residents from outside the region counting against Erie County's hospitalizations.
"I am disappointed that the Finger Lakes region was able to reopen with numbers that were actually going the opposite way, going up, while we're actually going downward, and this metric we have not met," Poloncarz said.
And that is true, according to the state's hospitalization tracker.
Since early last week, the number of Covid patients hospitalized in Western New York has been trending down and staying relatively flat.
That's not the case in the Finger Lakes, where there's been an uptick over the past couple of days.
"I expressed my concern to the state about this. I understand the way the metrics are done, and I understand their concern, but it is a little disappointing," Poloncarz said.
"To give you a little more data, I asked for particulars associated with the residents in Erie County from the hospital CEOs, and I was able to get from them that there are four individuals that are in hospitals in Erie County who do not reside in the Western New York economic development region."
Poloncarz says they live elsewhere in the state.
2 On Your Side called the Governor's office, state health, and a spokesperson for Lt.Gov. Kathy Hochul to see if Covid patients hospitalized here, but not from the area, could be counted in the region where they reside.
Hochul's office referred us to state health, which only reminded us of what the seven metrics are.
The Times Union reports that county officials in the Albany area say this same issue, of Covid patients not from their region but being counted against their metrics, may be happening there.
Jim Malatras, the president of SUNY Empire State College and a member of the governor's coronavirus response task force, is quoted saying "a hospitalization is a hospitalization," and that "the metrics are what the metrics are."
"If there comes a point in time where we need to re-evaluate these things, then we re-evaluate them," Malatras said.
The governor himself has said repeatedly that their response to the coronavirus will be driven by facts and science.
