BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) - Some local officials in Western New York are staggered after Governor Andrew Cuomo said recently that the region's coronavirus trends are the result of a "lack of compliance".
"We've had an ongoing issue with Western New York," Cuomo said Sunday. "...We have not identified specific clusters in that area, which is actually bad news, which you guys keep missing - a gratuitous comment - . Finding a cluster is a good thing. Having the data to find clusters is a good thing. When the doctor can find the source of infection on the human body and can circumscribe the area and treat the area, that's a good thing. A bad thing is when the doctors says 'I can't find out what's causing the infection'. We don't have specific clusters in Western New York. It's a general lack of compliance, which is causing the issue, which is why our efforts are generally to urge greater compliance because we don't see any specific causes."
According to the latest data unveiled Tuesday afternoon, Western New York has a 1.5 percent positive rate. The state reports that 77 people in the region tested positive on Monday out of 5,058 total people tested. This is slightly above the 1.4 percent positives reported statewide.
Chautauqua County on Monday had a spike in coronavirus cases. Of the 413 people tested, 37 cases came back positive. This represents 9 percent of the positive cases, their largest since the early days of the pandemic. The spike in new cases can be attributed to the outbreak at Tanglewood Manor in Jamestown.
"We've had clusters here and we have monitored them and tested," Chautauqua County Executive PJ Wendel said prior to the state's unveiling of the data Tuesday. "Tanglewood had some individuals who were sent to the hospital. They tested on Sunday the remaining 137 residents and we saw the 35 positives. We have small clusters and I think because of those clusters we have successfully mitigated the spread."
Wendel also noted past incidents of outbreaks at Fieldbrook Foods and at SUNY Fredonia as instances that have resulted in higher positive rates. But to blame a lack of compliance on the higher rates?
"That's a hard one," Wendel said. "We know this is a community-spread disease and it's here in our communities. We go back to the initial gameplan (which) is not to tax and overburden our health care system. Even with out slight uptick of ten people admitted over the weekend...we're okay. We haven't taxed our health care system and we haven't stressed it out. There have been people who are extremely compliant. Over-compliant, if you will."
Hospitalizations for coronavirus have trended upward in the last month across all of New York. It reached a single-day low of 410 on September 5 and is currently at 923 as of Monday. Still, these numbers pale to the 18,825 people hospitalized on April 14.
Western New York had 72 hospitalizations as of Monday. At its peak, there were 263 people hospitalized on April 28.
"We're dealing with a virus that we don't have a vaccine for yet," Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said. "Until we have a vaccine we have to be vigilant. Sometimes people are deliberately not wearing masks and not following the rules. Those are the people we worried about."
Poloncarz said some people forget to wear a mask and acknowledged his mistake in not wearing a mask.
State Senator Tim Kennedy said people need to take responsibility for their own actions and that most people have followed the proper precautions like hand washing and social distancing. Assemblyman Sean Ryan also said he hopes people stay in compliance but is worried that the numbers will continue to increase as the weather gets colder in the region.
"People in Western New York have largely been compliant," Ryan said. "You can't go to a Tops or Wegmans or Home Depot without seeing everybody in compliance. We've done a good job of that."
State Senator Patrick Gallivan echoed Ryan's comments that everywhere he goes you see someone wearing a mask and that most people are respectful of others. Gallivan also noted that the region hovering around 1 percent is indicative that the region is handling the pandemic well.
"I don't think it's appropriate that Western New York gets scapegoated because we're one-tenth of one percent higher than other regions," Gallivan said.
