NIAGARA COUNTY, N.Y. (WBEN) – There is no immediate plan for Niagara County to implement a mask mandate after the county on Monday became a community with "substantial" transmission.
According to the CDC, there were 122 new cases of COVID-19 for the last week or about 58 people per 100,000 residents.
Niagara County Legislative Chairwoman Rebecca Wydysh told WBEN there are three people hospitalized in all of Niagara County with COVID-19.
"At this point, we are not looking at doing a mask mandate countywide," Wydysh said. "The Niagara County Legislature does have a meeting (Tuesday) night. We will be talking with Dan Stapleton, who is our public health director and looking at some of our options more as they pertain to our county workforce and the individuals coming into our county buildings."
We reached out to Stapleton's office but did not connect with the health director.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz last week enacted a mask requirement for any person entering a county-owned building, regardless of vaccination status. There has been no county-wide requirement to wear a face covering.
"The county will reconsider a mask requirement for all indoor non-county owned public facilities if caseloads and hospitalizations should increase significantly as time progresses," Poloncarz said in a statement last week.
Wydysh said there is no threshold yet to determine if restrictions are required.
"I think you have to take all the different pieces of data and put them together into one big picture," Wydysh said, "Are all of our numbers rising or just certain numbers? Those are definitely areas of clarification that we need to look at. Also, we would look at if this is something county-wide as opposed to something in a hot-spot."
Individual organizations are allowed to implement their own mask rules. The University at Buffalo on Monday announced a mask requirement for all people on campus beginning Tuesday. However, most businesses are unlikely to adopt their own requirement due to potential backlash from customers.
"The more different rules you have in different places, you're going to see people be confused," Wydysh said. "Unfortunately, that is something that business owners will have to deal with. They will have residents who say 'I don't have to wear a mask. There's no mandate'. But, of course, it is up to that business to decide."
Wydysh said people need to pay attention to signs on doors at a business to see their policy and to be mindful those business owners do have the right to set a mask policy.
