As of Friday afternoon, eight more deaths from COVID-19 were reported by Erie County officials. During his afternoon briefing, County Executive Mark Poloncarz said models indicated this region's peak was still anticipated by mid May. He also offered a comparison he believes offers a more accurate perspective of the seriousness of cases in Western New York.
With the eight fatalities reported during the Friday afternoon update, Erie County's official COVID-19 death toll had reached 115 people. About half of those cases involved individuals over the age of 80. The county's official report also updated the total known positive tests to 2,023. Of the 232 patients reported hospitalized, 109 were in ICU and 95 among them had airway assistance.
When speaking about the county's numbers, Poloncarz acknowledged the comments by some who complain Western New York's situation should not be compared to that of New York City. To demonstrate that the local COVID caseload needs to be taken seriously and remains a threat, he explained comparisons made to Cuyahoga County, Ohio and Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Those counties include Cleveland and Pittsburgh, respectively, and Poloncarz added that both regions have at least 300,000 more people than Erie County, New York.
"Looking at Cuyahoga County, where Cleveland is, they have 1,331 cases and 42 deaths. And then we look at Erie County - and this is as of yesterday's data, we wanted to do a data apples-for-apples comparison - we had 1,951 cases and 107 deaths," Poloncarz said. "And what we saw in Allegheny County, they tested about 10,864 people, and in Erie County we've tested 7,762 through yesterday. They are not listing the amount of people tested in Ohio, so I can't say exactly how many people have been tested in Cuyahoga County, where Cleveland is. But when you look at the chart, it is fairly striking."
Poloncarz said the region is not ready to begin a full reopening, noting the continued anticipation of a case peak in about a month.
In the meantime, the Erie County Health Department is expanding its testing categories to include more people working in what the state has deemed "essential" occupations. According to the department these include employees of utilities, grocery stores, pharmacies, transportation, restaurants, food processing, building cleaning and maintenance, child care services, auto repair, convenience stores, gas stations and hardware stores.
Those who may be feeling symptoms are urged to contact their health care provider. If one does not have a doctor, the individual will receive referral information. Interested candidates are encouraged to call (716) 858-2929, option 2.
Poloncarz also discussed concerns the pandemic and its related shutdowns are having on the county's $1.73 billion budget. About half the budget, he explained, covers an array of health and human service programs. Two programs in particular, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, are seeing sharp spikes in demand.
"We used to get 30 or 40 new cases a day. We're getting hundreds and hundreds of new cases a day, and our budget was predicated on what was the usual expectation for this year, based on the normal number of cases," he said.
Additionally, the county is in danger of losing sales and hotel revenues up to $140 million dollars. County employees are currently getting paid, Poloncarz explained, but he warned that painful decisions may have to be made in the future, including program cuts and layoffs.
"I do not want to spend all of our piggy bank, our fund balance, to make up the hole in the budget," he said. "And that's why it's very important that the federal government do what a number of us in governments across the United States are calling for, which is passage of the federal stimulus package number four."
