Erie County COVID-19 cases declining; "We believe we have peaked"

Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz delivered a somewhat upbeat COVID-19 update on Tuesday, announcing that for the first time since Dec. 18, the latest weekly COVID-19 cases actually went down from the previous week.

Poloncarz said COVID-19 cases in the county for the week ending Jan. 15 dropped by 16% from the previous week. The decline in COVID-19 numbers comes as Poloncarz also noted that more than 5% of county residents had a lab-confirmed case of COVID-19 within the past four weeks.

"We do believe we've peaked and we're going down," stated Poloncarz as he updated the COVID-19 numbers.

Demographically, the 20-to-39 year-old age bracket makes up the highest percentage of new COVID-19 cases, a trend that has been consistent in recent months.

While hospitalizations remain a concern, those numbers also appear to be stabilizing, according to Poloncarz. Overall, hospitals are at approximately 85% occupancy, and it varies somewhat by hospital with ICU occupancies slightly lower.

Erie County health officials are also adjusting the way they look at hospitalizations, assigning the reason patients were admitted.

Poloncarz notes 567 people were admitted to hospitals and are COVID-19 positive, according to the latest data. Of that total number, 338 were admitted for COVID-19, while 229 were hospitalized for something else. The "something else" category of hospitalizations is the number that is trending upward, says Poloncarz.

Poloncarz said there is plentiful testing available within Erie County, saying the free county COVID-19 testing has open appointments, often times for the same day.

With COVID-19 numbers stabilizing and decreasing, Poloncarz was not ready to entertain the possibility of lifting the county's mask mandate.

"We're not anywhere near that point," said Poloncarz, who said the data is reviewed weekly.

He also noted the state mask mandate is in place through the end of January.

During the briefing, Poloncarz addressed rumors that he missed last week's briefing due to testing positive for COVID-19. He stated has never had COVID-19 to his knowledge, and would report it to the public if he had.