Dec. 21, 2020
December poised to be the worst month for Erie County Covid-19 deaths
On a day when many questions focused on sports, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz on Monday reminded people that the Covid-19 public health crisis is more serious than football.
As of the end of last week, 183 Erie County residents had died in December, he said, already surpassing November as the third worst month for virus-related fatalities.
That total translates into roughly 10 Erie County residents dying of Covid-19 each day. More than half of all investigated deaths involved individuals who were living in nursing homes and other congregate settings.
If this trend continues – and Poloncarz fears it will because of an anticipated surge associated with Christmas gatherings – Erie County is poised to exceed the highest monthly death totals from April and May.
"We would, in all likelihood, surpass the numbers we had earlier in the year," he said, "and that's very sad."
The explanation for the high death totals is simple, he added. More people are getting sick.
"We know that there's greater spread in our community today than there was earlier in the year," Poloncarz said. "And when you have more people that are catching it, you're going to have more deaths."
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