Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz on Tuesday provided the metrics for when the county's mask mandate will end.
Employees and visitors to county-owned buildings are currently still expected to wear masks when in public areas of these facilities. Poloncarz said the end of the mandate depends on the county’s weekly positivity rate dropping to less than 3% and the county’s seven-day case rate falling from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s "high" risk of community transmission category to "substantial" or "moderate" risk.
High risk is greater than 100 new cases per 100,000 persons in the past seven days, substantial risk is 50-99 new cases, while moderate is 10-49 new cases.
Poloncarz noted that the county's current weekly seven-day positivity rate is 4% and the weekly new case rate is 105.8 per 100,000 persons. If the current rates of decline continue, the county will likely fall into the substantial risk category in the next few days and less than 3% in the next week.
The mask policy is expected to be reviewed again in early March.
