BUFFALO, N.Y. — Republicans in the Erie County Legislature have a proposal that they say can avoid more COVID restrictions, by making testing a lot easier.
The resolution that they're proposing would ask the county executive, Mark Poloncarz, to follow a plan implemented by Monroe County. Leaders there are giving 750,000 free at-home tests to people so they can easily find out if they're positive before they do something.
Minority Leader Joe Lorigo says it's a better way to prevent community spread than adding more restrictions.
"This is a public health issue," Lorigo said. "And if we know that rapid testing can help fight the pandemic and help slow the spread, we should be doing everything we can to get rapid testing in the hands of every Erie County resident that wants one."
The resolution didn't pass immediately Thursday. Instead, it was sent to committee, where it won't be considered until next month.
Lorigo says that's wasting valuable time, especially given the governor's warnings Thursday.
Hochul spoke Thursday about what further steps the state could take if COVID cases continue to climb.
A statewide mask mandate is in effect and will stay put through January 15, which is when Hochul will release more details on whether it will expire, or if it will stay and put more restrictions in place.
"I have said all along I have two missions. One is to protect the health of the people of New York. The second is to protect the health of the economy. Right now we can do both," she said. "The extent that businesses follow what we ask them, only allowing people who are vaccinated, at some point we may have to determine that 'fully vaccinated' means 'boosted' as well, and we'll give people a sufficient time frame to make that happen.
"But I'm just sending out the message right now: prepare for that. We'll get more data. I'm not going to sit here and make up a policy on that front before it's more thought out, but we'll present that probably very shortly."