HAMBURG, N.Y. — When Erie County released its latest update on new COVID-19 case numbers, the 14075 zip code came in at the top by a wide margin as compared to the rest of the county.
Within that designated area, which takes in most of the Town of Hamburg and the Village of Hamburg, 234 cases were reported last week with a high per capita infection rate.
Town and village officials have been scratching their heads over why their community has this unfortunate listing. But now we area getting some additional information especially regarding a health care facility in the town.
Town Supervisor James Shaw also did mention at least "two or three superspreader events" in the last six to eight weeks, which he would not elaborate on. He also pointed out the Frontier and Hamburg Central School Districts, but added, "It's very difficult for us to pinpoint certain hot spots when the entire community has been open to this spread. And I don't want to fault people, but quite frankly we have got to get a lot more serious about this pandemic."
Supervisor Shaw told us he would be reaching out to the village as well and on Tuesday, 2 On Your Side spoke with Mayor Thomas Moses.
"We're assuming that the one hot spot would be the nursing home on Route 20 but that's not certain," Moses said. "We're concerned as well as everybody else where the hot spots are. We've got calls into the county health department as we try to come up with some more information on it."
As it turns out WGRZ did run a story on our website on November 6 in which a spokesperson for the McGuire Group did confirm a cluster of positive COVID-19 cases at the Autumnview Health Care Facility, which is located on Southwestern Boulevard or Route 20 in Hamburg. She did not provide a specific case count. But she did add that the patients, many said to be asymptomatic, were transferred to the Harris Hill Nursing Facility in Williamsville, which is also operated by the McGuire Group.
On Wednesday we did hear back from Dawn Harsch who is the Communications Director for the McGuire Group and she provided more details on cases at the Autumnview facility.
Harsch provided this statement which may help to explain some of the many cases reported in the Hamburg area:
"At the start of the pandemic, The McGuire Group arranged for patients who tested positive from its five Western New York facilities to receive covid-focused treatment and recover at Harris Hill Nursing Facility in Williamsville. Over the last three weeks, there have been 54 positive-testing patients from Autumn View who are recovering at Harris Hill, 18 of whom have already returned.
Autumn View, in Hamburg, is a five-star-rated rehabilitation facility that has admitted and discharged more than 850 rehab patients since March. During this time, only five individuals tested positive between March and the end of October. In the last three weeks, Autumn View has reported 37 positive-test results. These individuals are recovering in a specialized contained area within the facility.
One reason for what appears from the outside to be spikes in positives is because all five McGuire facilities conduct weekly rapid tests of residents with a 15-minute turnaround for results. This allows our caregivers to make decisions within minutes of discovering that someone, even if they are asymptomatic, has tested positive. Overall, this means the larger residential and staff population are protected much faster and more effectively than if they had to wait three-to-five days for test results.
Finally, on Nov. 10, the state Health Department sent unannounced inspectors to Autumn View. Several were involved and they checked all services, including staff infection control measures and techniques, food preparation and verification of an extensive supply of PPE. They found no issues. All McGuire facilities continue to follow DOH and CDC guidelines to the letter."
We also reached out to the Erie County Department of Health, which responded with a statement. It did not give any specific information about clusters of cases. You can read the full statement below:
"ECDOH is concerned about the numbers across all our municipalities. Current ECDOH testing operations include three sites each week, including one in Orchard Park/Southtowns, and daily point-of-care/rapid test sites, including one stationed in the Southtowns. Right now we are collecting samples to the maximum capacity that our Public Health Lab can handle and that our staffing allows for the rapid sites. ECDOH is continuing its enforcement across the county based on complaints and necessary follow-up inspections. ECDOH public health sanitarians inspect bars and restaurants every week, including weekend nights, throughout Erie County. We encourage anyone who feels they need a diagnostic test to seek one out. ECDOH is providing testing for close contacts of confirmed cases and symptomatic Erie County residents."
Mayor Moses told us he has been personally checking on bars in the village.
"I can get out at 10 p.m. at night (required state closing time with COVID in designated Yellow Zone) and go around making sure that the bars in the village are closed up and abiding by the rules which they have been thus far," Moses said.
Moses also confirmed that there had been three cases involving members with the Hamburg Volunteer Fire Department. He says one was the death of a 50-year-old male. The other two have been in quarantine and Moses says the fire department has taken all possible precautions including holding an upcoming fire training drill via Zoom.
The high caseload has also been affecting some small businesses in the town. Managers of Rodney's Restaurant on Route 5 by the lakeshore indicate they still pull in a decent number of customers on Friday and Saturday, but otherwise they're hurting and worried about a potential yellow to orange or a red shift.
Restaurant Manger Sally Mesi told us they are closely watching the updates by county and state officials.
"If they close us down we'll go back to takeout," Mesi said. "And right now we keep thinking with the amount of business that we have, we might be better doing just take out anyway. And we hate to do that — we hate to do that because we still do have our regulars that do come in and aren't afraid."
Kitchen Manager Brent Peszko says it's also been hard to keep hard working staffers on the job because of the suffering business. Then he must deal with logistics like ordering food with uncertainty on the menu.
"You don't want to order too much," Peszko said. "You don't want it to go bad. You gotta keep everything fresh - especially fish. Everything. Produce. It's hard so you just take it one day at a time."
Mesi added this point about their business, which she says goes out of their way to keep customers comfortable and safe with all safety and cleaning precautions, "It's just as safe here as it is in a grocery store. You know it's not so packed. When they say don't go to a restaurant or a bar they're talking about like busy crazy packed in places... we're not one of them."
