BUFFALO, N.Y. — Starting today, New York State will adopt the CDC's new mask and social distancing guidelines for fully vaccinated people.
This recommendation will apply across retail businesses, food services, offices, gyms and fitness centers, amusement and family entertainment, hair salons, barber shops and other personal care services.
This guidance means you will no longer need to wear a mask or socially distance under most circumstances if the business permits it. Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz is warning though that this only applies to those who are fully vaccinated.
"If you are unvaccinated you should still wear a mask and when we are talking about vaccinated we are talking about those two weeks after their second dose for the Pfizer and Moderna, same goes for Johnson and Johnson," Poloncarz said during a county briefing Tuesday.
But before you throw away all your masks, you will still need them for buses, planes, hospitals, prisons and homeless shelters. You will also need to pay attention to businesses that may still require them.
"Shopping centers, movie theatres, bars, restaurants can follow the same standard as before and say, OK you can take your mask off when you get to your table but when you get up to walk around then you are required to wear a mask," Poloncarz said.
One of those businesses is Oak & Iron Salon and Tattoo, owner Ashley Fox said her salon will continue to require masks.
"Whether or not you choose to get vaccinated I believe is your personal business and whether or not you choose to tell people you've been vaccinated is also your personal business," she said. "So for us we just didn't want to have to get into those conversations with our clients."
In addition, Fox said continuing to require masks will also protect her employees.
"I don't want to put my employees in situations where they have to explain personal health history to their clients, so for us it just makes sense to keep them," Fox said.
Walmart, Costco, Trader Joe's, Target, CVS, Tops, Wegmans and Dash's Markets have said they will not have a mask requirement..