Buffalo, NY (WBEN) Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz announces the county's COVID state of emergency will end at noon Saturday.
The decision comes after nearly two years of battling the coronavirus and amidst continuing calls from Republican lawmakers to end the emergency and powers that go along with it.
In a statement released in a tweet, Poloncarz credits the reduction in COVID case rates as well as dropping hospitalization rates.
He says Erie county will continue to offer free COVID-19 testing and vaccine clinics, as well as PPE, to the public.
Poloncarz adds, "Thanks to all for your efforts and sacrifice."
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Erie County Legislature Minority Leader Joe Lorigo says it's long overdue. "W've been calling for this for several weeks, if not months," Lorigo. He says Poloncarz knew that it was time to return the power back to the legislature. and believes Poloncarz waited until the very last second to do so.
Lorigo believes Poloncarz should not have waited 2 years to lift the state of emergency. "I understand that there were different surges and waves that were happening along the way. But, you know, we haven't been responding to an emergency in probably well over a year," says Lorigo.
He says the frustration comes from the fact that the legislature was kept out of the loop on so many different things. "The county executive didn't really provide us any updates rarely heard from the Health Commissioner. And not only were we getting frustrated, but constituents of ours were getting frustrated as well, wanting to know what was happening," adds Lorigo.