Erie mayor tests positive for COVID-19, working from home and taking antiviral drug

Erie County's summer surge of COVID-19 might be easing, but the highly contagious virus is still infecting many people.

Just ask Erie Mayor Joe Schember.

Schember, 71, tested positive Tuesday evening for COVID-19. He said he has a sore throat and his ears are plugged, but he feels well enough to work from home.

"I'm isolating myself upstairs," Schember said Wednesday morning. "I also need to protect my family."

It's the first time Schember has tested positive for COVID-19. He said his health deteriorated throughout the day Tuesday to the point he took an at-home COVID-19 test in the evening.

"Sure enough, it was positive," Schember said. "I called my doctor and he ordered me (the antiviral drug) paxlovid."

Schember, who said he is fully vaccinated and boosted, is considered at higher risk of COVID-19 complications due to his age. He also was treated for prostate cancer in 2020.

He will isolate at home for five days, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, and won't visit City Hall or attend public events until he tests negative.

His staff is notifying people with whom he came into close contact Monday and Tuesday, Schember said. Scheduled meetings for the rest of the week will be moved online.

Erie County will likely see decline in new COVID-19 cases

The county's daily number of new cases and the amount of coronavirus found in Erie Wastewater Treatment Plant samples have both declined in recent days, county health officials said. With no new subvariant poised to overtake omicron's BA.5 in the near future, those numbers could decline more in the upcoming weeks.

"(A)t least for the next 2 months. I don’t think you can predict beyond that," Dr. Howard Nadworny, Saint Vincent Hospital infectious diseases specialist and Erie County Department of Health adviser, said in an email. "The other question will be whether Covid cases decline more slowly once schools are back in session (without masking), prolonging this particular wave."

The county's number of COVID-19 cases has remained stubbornly consistent during the summer as the BA.5 subvariant spread. The seven-day moving average of daily cases has remained between 30 and 67 county residents since early June, though it dropped from an average of 62.4 cases a day from Aug. 16-22 to 61 cases from Aug. 23-29.

A much larger number of people probably have been infected during that time, Nadworny said, but at-home testing and milder symptoms have led to a lower percentage of cases being reported.

The amount of virus found in samples taken from the wastewater plant has declined about 40% over the past two weeks, Nadworny reported. Wastewater samples are used across the country as a way to gauge how much COVID-19 is in a community.

Daily COVID-19 hospitalizations have remained even more consistent than cases, as the 14-day moving average has remained between 17 and 33 county residents since mid-March.

More: Erie County reports 8 COVID-19 deaths but some occurred in January

Erie County moves to medium COVID-19 Community Level despite drop in cases

But the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations increased enough last week to move the county to a medium COVID-19 Community Level, as determined by the CDC. COVID-19 hospitalization trends often lag new case trends by about two weeks.

The main difference from a low community level is that people at high risk for severe illness should talk to their healthcare provider about whether they need to wear a mask and take other precautions, according to the CDC.

More: 20 months later: Erie-area doctor returns to work after COVID-19, double-lung transplant

"We have seen a slight uptick in recent days but a majority of them remain patients who are hospitalized for other reasons and then test positive for COVID," said Dr. Christopher Clark, Saint Vincent president. "We see just a few cases where COVID is contributing to their hospitalization. It's very different from the delta surge."

Though the county's number of new cases has declined, people should be aware that the coronavirus is still circulating in the community, said Charlotte Berringer, R.N., director of community health services for the county health department.

"Yes, it appears we have probably peaked but without good, hard case numbers, I wouldn't be surprised if we see an increase in the number of cases with schools opening and people going back indoors," Berringer said.

More: Erie-area schools, colleges will look much like they did before COVID-19 pandemic

Contact David Bruce at dbruce@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNBruce.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie Mayor Joe Schember tests positive for COVID-19, working from home