BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) – Western New York continues to have the highest COVID-19 positive test rate among all the regions in the state and Governor Andrew Cuomo over the past weeks has criticized the behaviors of people in Western New York, blaming that for why people have contracted COVID-19.
"I think you have people who don't take as many precautions and don't take this as seriously," Cuomo said last week. "Look at the highest rate in Western New York. Ask yourself why? That should be a discussion in Western New York. Why do we have the highest infection rate in the State of New York? What is it about us in Western New York that has the highest infection rate? If you have the highest infection rate, you have people dying."
Cuomo responded "that's right" when asked by a reporter to confirm his characterization that the higher rates are because of behavior and not because of variants that are in the region.
"If it's not behavioral, tell me what it is," Cuomo said.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz on Tuesday declined to respond to the way Cuomo characterized the region's behavior. But he said there is a concern over the increased number of cases.
"We were number one in New York State and, for a while, we were number one in the northeast," Poloncarz said. "We love to say we're number one, but we were number one in new hospitalizations and positive cases and, sadly, deaths in our population."
44.6% of New Yorkers have received at least one vaccine dose. Despite the characterization that the region isn't taking COVID seriously, Western New York's vaccine percentage is 44.7%. Erie County has the best vaccination rate among the five counties in the region at 47.5%.
"We have a higher vaccination rate than the rest of New York State, that is true," Poloncarz said. "We actually have a higher vaccination rate than the national average. I'm happy about that. I want to be as high as we can possibly be. As long as 40% or 35% of the population has not been vaccinated, we will not reach herd immunity."
60 people in Erie County have died from COVID-19 in April.
One of those victims was fully vaccinated, though they had many underlying conditions, according to Poloncarz.
