HAMBURG, N.Y. — The numbers speak for themselves to give Hamburg that dubious distinction as the town with the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Erie County.
The specific 14075 zip code was tabbed with 234 cases as of Saturday, November 14. And despite its actual population of nearly 42,000, that zip code area which covers portions of Hamburg, Scranton, Wanakah and North Boston has a sobering infection rate.
So why is it happening in this "Gateway of the Southtowns" community?
Hamburg Supervisor James Shaw tells 2 On Your Side, "There are a lot of explanations or excuses as to why the cases have proliferated. We've had a couple of superspreader events. We've had laxity in terms of restaurants and bars and parties and activity on Halloween."
Shaw would not provide details on those so-called superspreader events, which occurred over the last six to eight weeks.
"Certainly generically there have been, I think it's fair to say, two or three events that probably should not have occurred," Shaw said.
He did point out the town has two large school districts — Hamburg Central and Frontier — as well as St. Francis High School.
"So we've got a lot of occasion for contact on a continuous basis," Shaw said.
Shaw says he would like to see more testing availability for residents of his town. He says there is no specific testing location in Hamburg currently, but also understands county resources are limited. Shaw says he intends to ask county officials and the health department for more guidance, but he is not sure they can provide definite answers either.
Shaw will also seek to coordinate more with the local officials of the villages of Blasdell and Hamburg, which are also in the town limits. Blasdell is listed with its own COVID-19 case amount of 40 by Erie County Department of Health stats.
But in the meantime he is developing a game plan.
"We're going to ask local law enforcement to be a bit more stringent in terms of enforcing rules and regulations. And we're gonna have to do a better job on social distancing, wearing masks and doing all the things we know we gotta do," Shaw said.
