BUFFALO (WBEN) - On Monday, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz and Monroe County Executive, along with various regional doctors and healthcare workers, held a joint briefing to share their concern over the rising number of COVID infections and hospitalizations in the region.
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"Erie County is experiencing an acceleration of new daily COVID-19 cases and weekly case totals that we haven't seen since the peak of the pervious COVID-19 wave," said Health Commissioner Dr. Gale Burstein. "Our total of 714 cases in one day on November 12 was extreme and speaks to a general widespread community transmission happening right now.
"We know from experience what follows high numbers of new cases: increases in hospitalizations, and very sadly, some of these people will die, and we'll see additional COVID-19 associated deaths," she continued.
Specifically looking at hospitalizations in Erie County, several of the local health officials explained current conditions in their respective hospitals with the general consensus that there's reason to worry.
Dr. Mike Mineo, chief medical officer at Buffalo General and Millard Fillmore Suburban:
"Right now we have 505 inpatients in a hospital built for 456 patients. We're at 110% capacity. Of that, about 10% of them are COVID positive. The message can't be stressed enough to protect yourself and protect your family because our systems are strained."
Dr. Hans Cassagnol, executive vice president and chief clinical officer at Catholic Health:
"Over the past few weeks or so, to say that numbers have increased drastically is actually an understatement, and the vast majority of those numbers are actually the unvaccinated by far."
Bryan Murray, chief medical officer at ECMC:
"Every staffed bed that we have in the hospital is occupied, and in addition, we have on any given day 30 patients backed up in our emergency room waiting for beds in the hospital. What's happening in terms of the increase in cases is eerily similar to what we experienced last November, except we are not in good shape to handle such a surge."
Dr. Steven Turkovich, chief medical officer at Oishei Children's Hospital:
"We're starting to see a younger population of children admitted to the hospital with COVID. To put that in perspective, since November 1, we've had 10 children admitted to the hospital, and seven of them are less than 5 years old, and all of them contracted COVID from a family member, who was positive with COVID, who was unvaccinated. We're also starting to see an increase in the number of children admitted to the pediatric ICU with COVID. Thus far this month, we've had five admitted. Last month, we had a total of five, so unfortunately, that rate is going up."
