ERIE COUNTY, N.Y. — On Monday, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz announced the Western New York region meets five of the seven required reopening benchmarks put in place by Governor Andrew Cuomo. This is an improvement from three out of seven when these metrics were put in place.
"I said we were going to meet the contact tracing requirements and we have," Poloncarz said. "New York State is happy with what we have done as a region and therefore they put us in the check column. When it came to testing we were worried about testing they said we need to ramp up testing we have, especially over the last week to 10 days. We've met the testing requirement."
However, the region still has not seen a 14-day decline in hospitalizations nor a 14-day decline in hospital deaths, a requirement that must be met before phase one of reopening can begin.
During his afternoon briefing Poloncarz said he is still waiting for new data on hospitalizations from the New York State Department of Health to determine if the county is close to meeting those metrics.
However, Poloncarz tweeted Monday night that Erie County received new hospitalization data for May 7 and May 10. The data shows hospitalizations have been on the decline since May 4.
On May 10, 194 patients were hospitalized, which is a drop from 199 patients on May 7. These numbers are a significant drop from 222 patients on May 4.
"Some regions in the state, it appears will be opening on May 15, Friday," Poloncarz said. "I don't know if we're gonna get there yet it seems a little tight but we may. No matter what I think we would open by June 1. There was a question brought up can we open between May 15 and June 1? The answer is yes."
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown told 2 On Your Side he does not believe Western New York will be able to meet all the metrics by Friday.
"I think it's gonna be after the May 15 PAUSE order deadline from everything that I am seeing and hearing," Brown said. "Which is why it's important for the members of our community to continue to comply with all the guidance. If we can comply with the guidance I think that we will be able to put together all of the seven metrics and be able to reopen in the phases that the Governor has laid out."