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Erie County Executive @markpoloncarz and County Health Commissioner Dr. Gale Burstein have a weekly Covid-19 briefing scheduled to start at 2:30pm. Will thread it here.
Poloncarz: 16,130 total positive cases in the county (separate individuals). 736 have died in county as of 11/9.
as of 11/10: hospitalizations at highest number since June 10
Dramatic increase in cases in last week to 10 days, Poloncarz says. There's been more than a doubling in hospitalizations.
Positive rate: A month ago, 1.5%. Jumped to 4.6% positive as of 11/7.
This week's total has already surpassed last week's total. 1,520 from 11/8 - 11/11. Higher than prior week. Last two days, positive test rate over 7%.
"New cases are everywhere," county executive says.
Rates in some zip codes are 11%+ . Elma tested at 9.6%. Springville had rate of 8.8%.
City of Buffalo is not doing great, but some suburbs and rural are much worse, Poloncarz says, noting this is based on last week's data.
It's possible other portions of the county could be placed into the state's "yellow zones" designation, county exec says.
Burstein: County has predictive modeling on hospitalizations being done by UB Jacobs School of Medicine.
Unfortunately, where we are now, hospitalizations are exponentially increasing, Burstein says. "Explosion of cases this week," she says
Everyone who's been a close contact of someone with a confirmed case should place themselves in quarantine, Burstein says.
County covid hotline "a little overwhelmed" with people requesting tests, Burstein says
There's still a lot that we can all do to bring our numbers down, Burstein says. We did it once, we can do it again, she says.
"Stay at home, hunker down," Burstein encourages residents.
Callers to county hotline may not be able to get through. Some changes being made to adapt, health commissioner says.
"Please, stay home Erie County residents," she says, noting the existing travel advisory for most of the rest of the country.
Poloncarz: Erie County not really a microcluster, since it's most of the county and 80% of the population.
Some zip codes in the county probably could have already been placed in orange and red zones, Poloncarz says
"We have a really healthy stock of PPE," county exec says. In a good position, he says.
Erie County recommends limiting Thanksgiving gatherings to immediate family. Don't travel. Don't invite visitors from out of town, Poloncarz says.
Less "me," more "we," county exec says.
"We think it is still salvageable," Poloncarz says.
"We think it is still salvageable," Poloncarz says.
We are on the edge of some terrible numbers if we do not get this under control, he says
County is hearing of case after case of people who knew they were sick and went to work or went out to a party with friends, Poloncarz said. One case involved a party bus and ended up with the shutdown of an employer, which was a school district, he says.
Enforcement of 10-person residential gathering limit is "up to local law enforcement," Poloncarz said Not just county sheriff, but every municipal agency. Investigators from some state agencies are being brought in to assist, he said.
Numbers have gone up because people are not following rules, Poloncarz says, not because of changes to who is being tested.
County is hiring more contact tracers. 10 new tracers recently started and more are on the way, Burstein said.
