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Cuomo addresses lack of masks during daily news briefings

The governor called the order, which went into effect Friday night, a 'small inconvenience' with a big benefit for the public.

ALBANY, N.Y. — Gov. Andrew Cuomo's executive order took effect Friday night, requiring anyone to wear masks in public where they can't stay six feet apart from each other.

Plenty of people around Buffalo were wearing them at the park and at stores on Saturday, when the governor faced this question at an afternoon news briefing: why isn't he, or for that matter, the rest of his staff wearing them at daily briefings now?

Here's what he had to say:

"Here, I'm not going to come any closer to you than I am," he said. "There is no possibility that you and I, John, violate the social distancing guideline. I'm socially distanced from Howard. I'm socially distanced from Melissa. I'm not in public."

The governor called the order a "small inconvenience" with a big benefit for the public.

2 On Your Side on Friday asked Mayor Byron Brown and the Buffalo Police, what they will do about it?

We first asked about suggestions for businesses.

"We would recommend to businesses that if a person does not have a face covering that they not come until they do cover their face with  a mask," Mayor Brown said.

We also asked if the city would for-see enforcement at some point if someone is not wearing a mask and in proximity to someone else.

"We've tried to do this in the spirit of good neighbors and would not come down heavy handed and trying to use enforcement," the mayor said.

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