Erie County Update: May 7, 2020

WQLN Livestream

Erie County Executive was troubled to announce a record number of nine new cases of COVID-19. One of these cases is a teenager, three of the cases are in their 20s, two are in their 30s, two are in their 40s, and one is in their 50s. Three are in Zone one (the City of Erie), two are in Zone two (Millcreek), one is in Zone three (the northeast section of the county), while three are in Zone five (western Erie County). Dahlkemper cited the warm weather coupled with the Yellow phase announcement as some of the causes for this rise. This is the first time our total has eclipsed 100, at 104 cumulative cases. There have been 2,439 negatives, and 79 recovered cases, for 25 active cases. To date, there have been two deaths of Erie County residents attributed to COVID-19.

Crawford County has 20 positive cases, while McKean County remains at six (no change since April 29) with one death recently announced. Warren County at one (no change since April 3). 

Chautauqua County is at 38 cases (up one) and four deaths (no change since yesterday). Ashtabula County now has 169 cases (up nine) and 18 deaths (up one).

Statewide, there were 1,070 additional positive cases, for a total of 52,915 total cases. So far, there have been 3,416 deaths statewide, and 209,873 patients who have tested negative to date. 

"Erie County residents, I am deeply, deeply concerned, and I believe that you should be deeply concerned too" Dahlkemper stated. "You or someone you love could be the next host for this virus, and if people are not following guidelines, these numbers are just going to continue to rise. So I am begging you, as we prepare to reopen our businesses tomorrow, as we move out of the stay-at-home order into the Yellow phase, please continue to take the necessary precautions, these same precautions that I and Secretary Levine have been discussing and sharing with you every single day for weeks and weeks that have enabled us to maintain a reasonable number of cases so far here in Erie County."

Today, (as has become a Thursday afternoon feature), the County Executive was joined by our region's healthcare partners: 

• Dr. Christopher C. Clark, President and Chief Executive of Allegheny Health Network's St. Vincent Hospital
• David P. Gibbons, President of UPMC Hamot
• John A. Gennaro, CEO and Director of the Erie VA Medical Center
• Mary L. Eckert, President and CEO of LECOM Health Millcreek Community Hospital

This marked the first time each of these high-level health leaders joined the daily press conference.