BUFFALO, N.Y. — Tuesday, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz announced his administration is putting a plan in place to lift the mask mandate in Erie County-owned buildings.
Currently, employees and visitors to county-owned buildings must wear masks when in public areas.
COVID-19 hospitalizations and cases are continuing to decline in Erie County which has led Poloncarz to reconsider the mandate.
“Erie County residents have endured the struggle against COVID-19 and its variants for nearly two years at this point, but they're currently are encouraging signs that the pandemic may be reaching its end stages," said Poloncarz.
While a shift to an endemic phase is very welcome, this does not mean the threat is over; rather, Erie County will continue to be vigilant in our review of this still-developing situation and will take future actions as the situation dictates. While this may be the beginning of the end of the pandemic, there are still individuals in our community who are at risk of severe illness from COVID-19 and we again encourage everyone who is eligible to get vaccinated, get boosted, and continue to practice smart, responsible behaviors for preventing the further spread of the virus."
Poloncarz said the Erie County-owned building mask mandate will be lifted when:
- The county’s weekly positivity rate is less than 3% and the county’s seven-day case rate has fallen from the CDC’s ‘high’ risk of community transmission category (greater than 100 new cases per 100,000 persons in the past seven days) to the ‘substantial’ risk of community transmission category (50-99.99 new cases per 100,000 persons in the past seven days); or,
- If the county’s weekly positivity rate does not fall below 3% but the county’s seven-day case rate falls into the ‘moderate’ risk of community transmission category (10-49.99 new cases per 100,000 persons in the past seven days).
According to the Erie County Department of Health, the weekly seven-day positivity rate is 4.0% and the weekly new case rate per 100,000 persons is 105.8. If the current rates of decline continue, the county will likely fall into the ‘substantial’ risk category in the next few days, and less than 3% in the next week.
However, since the beginning of the pandemic Erie County data has differed from New York State Department of Health data.
The latest state data from Monday said there were 99 new cases per 100,000 over the last seven days in Erie County which would put the county in the 'substantial' risk category.
‘Newly confirmed COVID-19 cases and COVID-19-related hospitalizations continue to trend downward, which indicates that the incredible levels of COVID-19 transmission omicron variant surge in December and January are finally behind us,’ added Commissioner of Health Dr. Gale Burstein.
If the mandate were lifted, the KeyBank Center would still need to follow the state's vaccine mandate that's in place for facilities with seating capacity greater than 5,000.
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