BUFFALO, N.Y. — Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz is urging Western New York college students to get tested for COVID-19 if they attended a house party in the past week.
During a Wednesday press conference, Poloncarz discussed an increase in cases linked to students who attended such gatherings, became symptomatic, and then tested positive for the virus days later.
"We believe there are a number of college students who attended house parties in the last week who may be asymptomatic with COVID-19," Poloncarz said.
New York State COVID-19 restrictions in effect ban all off-campus house parties over 50 people and while patrolling unruly parties isn't new for New York State University Police Officers and the Buffalo Police Department during the pandemic, extra care is being taken.
"Members of the Buffalo Police Department, Campus Police go out and proactively look for college parties that are getting out of hand, too loud too big and become a safety hazard," said Captain Jeff Rinaldo of the Buffalo Police Department.
"We started patrolling last weekend, but there was almost no activity of concern."
Wednesday evening, the University at Buffalo updated its total number of COVID-19 cases to 46. Of those, two are employes, one an on-campus student but the majority, 43, are off-campus students.
Just a day earlier the university reported only having 22 off-campus cases.
While law enforcement has played a key role in policing large gatherings during the pandemic, Niagara University is reminding neighbors they too can to report off-campus parties to the Niagara Falls and the Lewiston Police Departments.
Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs Christopher Sheffield told 2 On Your Side there were one or two concerns this past week.
"To this point, we have not yet had to make a decision to suspend a student from the University but we're certainly prepared to take that action as we need to," Sheffield said.
The University at Buffalo, Buffalo State College, Niagara University, and Canisius College are all utilizing an education approach first, providing COVID-19 rules and information to students.
However, if and when these proactive measures don't work suspension, expulsion and in the case of Canisius, a $1,000 fine for hosting an off-campus party, can all be levied against students.
Reminding students about their impact beyond campus is another approach favored by Niagara.
"We've got a community of people that may have vulnerabilities and that's something that we've tried to appeal to our students that although you may not feel like you're particularly at high risk you've got to be mindful of others," Sheffield said.
Because as we've seen in Oneonta, an outbreak on campus can impact the larger community as well.