BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) - Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said nine people died from coronavirus on Sunday as cases continue to climb.
There are 746 people who have died from the disease since March.
17,869 people have contracted the virus and hundreds of contracted the virus each day in the last several days. Poloncarz said the cases are doubling each week.
Hospitalizations continue to climb. In Erie County, 129 people were in a hospital as of Saturday. There are 27 people who are in the ICU. Poloncarz said many of the new hospitalizations are of people who are under the age of 60.
Of course, many Erie County residents are concerned about the possibility of downgrading into and orange or a red zone in the coming days. If orange or red zones were to be imposed, that would mean further restrictions.
"I think a lot of businesses and people should be worried because the numbers are significantly higher than we hoped they'd be at this time when we talked about this last week," Poloncarz responded.
When asked about the specific data that will be used to determine whether or not certain areas need to go into orange or red zones, the county executive cited zip code data, as well as new daily cases per 100,000 on a seven-day average.
"There is no one driving factor, but new cases are going to be seriously considered as it pertains to the percentage of the population," said Poloncarz. "If we go orange or red, and I think there is a chance that portions of our community will go orange and maybe even red, I do not expect it to be the whole community, I expect it to be particular regions of serious concern."
