ERIE COUNTY, N.Y. — We've heard repeatedly from government and health officials that human behavior can determine how the coronavirus spreads.
In a daily coronavirus briefing on Friday, Governor Andrew Cuomo said, "You tell me how we behave today. I will tell you the rate of infection three days from now."
Local leaders are urging people to keep that in mind this Mother's Day weekend.
"You may have the coronavirus and not know it. You could be an asymptomatic transmitter. You do not want to give your mother the worst gift that she could possibly get on Mother's Day, which is the coronavirus," Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said.
We asked Jillianna Wasiura, an Infection Control Coordinator at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, for her input.
"We're not there yet," she said. "We can't ease up, because if we ease up, then the timeframe that we're looking at is a two-week timeframe when things can start to spike again, so we have to do our due diligence."
Wasiura said planning any kind of gathering could be a slippery slope.
"If it's gonna snow, they'll want to congregate inside, and there will be those instances when you're not physically distanced, and people aren't going to be wearing masks, and somebody's gonna use your restroom, and there's contact surfaces and those sorts of things, so it's important just to not take those chances," Wasiura said.
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown addressed those concerns in a daily coronavirus briefing.
He suggested connecting with family virtually.
"Even though we are physically distant, we're not distant from one another. That's what I would recommend that families do this Mother's Day to keep mom, to keep grandmom safe, and not spread the virus in our community," Mayor Brown said.
While statewide it looks like our numbers are on the decline, experts say we have to stay vigilant with social distancing measures.
"We don't want to put anyone at risk. It's not worth it. We need to buckle down and stay the course," Wasiura said.