Rising youth COVID rates concerns Erie County officials
Burstein: "The epidemiology of COVID-19 has changed in our community."
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) - Erie County officials are alarmed not only because Western New York boasts the highest COVID positive test rate in the state, but because an increasingly number of young people are contributing to the spike in numbers.
Less than a month ago, the positive test rate for age groups between 0 and 17 was less than nine percent. Last week, the positive test rate ranged from 9.8% for those between 0 and 4 while the highest rate was 12.2% between the age 5 to 10 and 14 to 17 groups.
"We had one of the highest numbers as it pertains to raw cases in schools in Erie County for one week this past week," Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz. "The cases are primarily being driven by younger individuals. That number has been increasing...Younger people are, based on our positivity rates, are much more likely to be positive than they are if they are older."
Erie County Health Commissioner Dr. Gale Burstein said the spike is reflective of what's being seen in schools.
"This last week ending on April 3, there were 504 cases of primarily students, but some staff, affiliated with schools from Pre-K through Grade 12 that were COVID-positive," Burstein said. "That's a huge jump from the week before when that did break our record of 306 cases. The epidemiology of COVID-19 has changed in our community."
Officials pointed the finger at youth sports, saying 165 teams have been forced to pause their season because one person on their team tested positive. Hockey teams accounted for 40% of the youth teams paused by the health department.
County officials continued to stress the importance of receiving a vaccine. Erie County regularly holds clinics at SUNY Erie's campuses and at KeyBank Center. Next week, the county will receive 8,000 doses from New York State, though none of those doses will be Pfizer's two-dose vaccine. Pfizer's vaccine is the only vaccine that was approved for use on children.
"What New York State has told us is once we run out of our supply, they're not expecting that we're going to get more Pfizer in the next couple of weeks, so if you're trying to schedule for a 16 or 17 year old, you're probably going to have to look at the state site or state locations for vaccinating the 16 and 17 year olds in the next couple of weeks."
70.6% of Erie County residents who are age 65 and older have received a vaccine. This is higher than the state average of 65%.
