BUFFALO (WBEN) - Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz provided a COVID-19 update Wednesday afternoon - on Monday, there were 639 new cases reported in the county with a daily positivity rate of 7.9%.
There were 639 positive cases reported on Monday, and according to Poloncarz, capacity is becoming a growing concern for Erie County hospital systems. As of Monday, there were 316 individuals admitted to hospitals in Western New York, with 264 of them coming from Erie County.
"Hospitals are preparing for a surge in patients and are very worried about staff capability and capacity," said Poloncarz. "Dr. Bursetin and I were on a phone call earlier today with the hospital CEO's, and they agreed that we have not seen the peak yet; it's going to be some time before we see a peak in hospitalizations, and they are very worried about their full capacity, not just with regard to beds, but with staff capabilities and being able to meet the needs of the greater community."
Of course, many residents had expected much of the county to be moved into a red zone by Governor Cuomo, but that announcement was never made. Poloncarz confirmed no changes to any areas in Erie County, and he added that he doesn't expect an update in that regard for several more days.
"New York State is still worried about the region and the growth of cases," said Poloncarz. "In communications with a number of the governor's staff yesterday, and I know that they are still concerned, though I think we all are at least feeling somewhat better about what appears to be the positivity rate leveling, until we got yesterday's data, so we'll wait and see if it's a one-day spike or not, but we had seen some dropping in the positivity rate for a few days in a row."
