BUFFALO (WBEN) - Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz and Commissioner of Health Dr. Gale Burstein provided an update on COVID numbers in the county Monday afternoon.
On November 28, there were 386 individuals admitted to hospitals in Western New York for COVID-19, 327 of them in Erie County. As of November 29, there were 438 new positive cases of COVID reported with a daily positivity rate of 9.2%, and the seven-day positivity average stands at 7.3%.
As Governor Cuomo announced Monday morning, all elective surgeries in Erie County will be canceled starting Friday due to the rapid increase in hospitalizations.
"Hospitalizations will be a key metric in determining whether areas need to go into an orange or red zone," said Poloncarz, also noting that Erie County will not enter any red zones on Monday, though he's not sure what the rest of the week will hold.
As far as schools in micro-cluster zones are concerned, the the mandated testing requirements have changed substantially. Districts and schools located within orange zones will have to test 20%, while schools in red zones will have to 30%; however, these metrics must now be achieved over the course of a month as opposed to every week.
"This makes the goal much more attainable, and the goal is to get kids back in school," said Poloncarz.
According to the data compiled for the week ending November 28, West Seneca, Hamburg and Lancaster are among the communities that are the most hard hit with cases.
