BUFFALO (WBEN) - For the first time in weeks, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz and Health Commissioner Dr. Gale Burstein held a COVID press briefing Wednesday, as the county remains in the high risk category of transmission with 191 total new cases per 100,000 people.
For October 26, there were 400 new cases confirmed, bring the latest seven-day total to 1,824 new cases in Erie County.
"This is fresh out of the Department of Health's epidemiological staff," said Poloncarz. "This is actually one of the largest new cases we've seen in quite some time - 400 new case. We didn't plan on holding this event because of the new cases, but the 400 cases in one day is actually one of the larger new cases that were confirmed on October 26."
Showing comparisons to numbers from last year, Poloncarz said they are worried that November will be a bad month.
"We are still concerned about what could happen in the fall as more and more people go indoors, we have holidays that people are enjoying indoors," said Poloncarz. "I hope it will not be as high as last year...the primary reason - we have so many people vaccinated in Erie County, but it's not good when you see the total number of deaths for August, September, and October of this year, after we vaccinated so many people, be higher than last year.
"If you have not gotten vaccinated, it's almost a case of Russian roulette in some ways..." Poloncarz continued. "We have had 807 individuals die this year - a majority of those since at least July, we know were unvaccinated, and if those people had been vaccinated, there's a very good chance a good portion of them, a high portion of them, would be alive today."
As of October 25, 65% of all Erie County residents have received at least one dose (74% of those 18-plus), and 60% of residents are fully vaccinated including 70% of those 18-plus.
