BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Erie County officials are saying something needs to give to stop the spread of the virus in this region because the orange zone designation hasn’t helped much.
There are 432 Covid patients in county hospitals as of November 30th. That’s a 262% increase in hospitalizations overt the last three weeks. 51 people have died in the hospitals in the last 7 days.
Projections shown Wednesday at the county press conference don’t show the curve decreasing with the current destinations in place.
Erie County Health Commissioner Dr. Gale Burstein says an emergency lockdown may need to be put in place if behavioral spread — things like small gatherings — don’t stop.
The county is also seeing a spread of the virus in communities that weren’t highly impacted during the first wave back in the spring.
The zip codes leading positivity rates are Wales with a 17% positivity rate, followed by Irving at 15% and then Marilla at 14%
There’s a 7.9% daily positivity rate across Western New York with a 7.3% rolling average which is up from days past.
County officials expect a big spike in cases related to the holiday in the next 5-7 days.
