BUFFALO, N.Y. — Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz announced Friday that he will be ending the ongoing State of Emergency that has been in place since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, March 2020.
The State of Emergency will end at noon on Saturday.
"With the dramatic drop in new COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and need for PPE, and Erie County now being in the 'Low' CDC risk category for COVID transmission, the county's state of emergency will end effective noon tomorrow," Poloncarz said in a tweet.
The move was celebrated by Democratic and Republican members of the Erie County legislature would now be required to provide input and vote on any future COVID restrictions, unless the order is put back in place.
"I'm happy to hear it is finally coming to an end I think it's long overdue," said Erie County Legislator and Minority Leader Joe Lorigo.
'We can finally get back to government the way it was intended, there can be checks and balances on the county executive and the legislature will have a seat at the table."
Lorigo and his Republican colleagues had been pushing for many months to have the same powers that will now sunset Saturday removed but failed in those attempts because they only had partisan support. The Erie County Legislature is split with seven Democrats and four Republican-supported members.
If future COVID action is needed by the legislature, both Lorigo, and newly elected legislator John Bargnesi said Friday that Erie County's law-making body will be ready to respond.
"I think the legislature is always ready to evaluate and always ready to react to the people's needs," Bargnesi said.
"I think it is important to point out that this isn't something that's just going away but it's something that we're living with and we're living through and we have been for a long time," Lorigo said.
"I think the main point that we've been trying to make for so long is that it's no longer an emergency."
Lorigo did give the Erie County Executive high marks for responding to the pandemic early on but was positive about recent months. Bargnesi, who saw the same COVID response from outside legislative politics however said he thought the emergency powers discussion became a political football. He was previously Tonawanda's Deputy Supervisor.
"This was a very difficult time for people to manage a large community and I know that from being on the town side to moving to the county side. I believe the county executive did an excellent job," said Bargnesi.
In Friday's release from Poloncarz, he talked about how the State of Emergency has allowed the county to respond to the pandemic quickly and flexibly through each stage.
"As March begins we are thankfully continuing to see reductions in case rates, especially from the extremely high rates that we saw just two months ago. Simultaneously, hospitalization rates for COVID-19 cases are dropping and the strain on our healthcare system is easing. These are good signs, but Erie County will continue to monitor these rates and other potential areas of concern with the virus and its variants; they are not going away completely," Poloncarz said in the release.
Lorigo feels that same flexibility with be possible with the legislature regaining their check and balance; as he put it eleven legislators' heads are better than one.
"If there is something that is that important we are more than willing to come to the table for an emergency session at a moment's notice, Lorigo added.
Erie County personnel from many different departments have worked out of their job title to help with the response to the pandemic. Now those employees have been returning to their own jobs as the virus has ebbed.
County-run testing and vaccination clinics will continue. Municipalities will still be helped with PPE and other needs relating to the pandemic, but the levels will be reduced from the past year.
Schools will continue to be assisted by the county.