BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz held a brief news conference Tuesday to discuss the increased number of COVID-19 cases in the county.
"I did want to note based on some of the most recent information that we've had in the last 24 hours that this is a very serious and significant problem that we're facing in Erie County," Poloncarz said.
According to the county executive, for the week ending on November 14, as well as the first few days of this week, there is not a single town or city in Erie County that has a COVID-19 infection rate below 3%.
Poloncarz said the Town of Elma led all areas with an infection rate of 11.8% last week. North Collins, Boston and the Derby section in Evans were the next three highest with infections rates of 11.6%, 11.5% and 10.9%.
Officials expect an announcement Wednesday on whether areas in the Yellow Zone micro-cluster enter the Orange or Red Zone. Poloncarz said there may be areas that become a Yellow Zone that were previously not included.
"We've seen a rapid increase in cases over the last two weeks, we've seen a rapid increase in hospitalizations over the last week and unfortunately we've also seen deaths increase over the last week and half," Poloncarz said.
