Statement from Niagara County Legislature Chairman Becky Wydysh on Mask Mandate & Niagara County COVID-19 Weekly Update

 “As the declining COVID-19 numbers in our weekly update show, we are clearly trending in the right direction and doing so quickly.  With Governor Hochul’s announcement today that the mask mandate for indoor businesses is now lifted, there is no public mask mandate in Niagara County as of tomorrow, including all county buildings, except for those under control of the court system. 

“However, we are very disappointed that the Governor not only failed to lift the mask mandate in schools, but did not identify a clear, definitive threshold for doing so.   This will continue to frustrate many parents who believe we are well past the time for schools to resume a normal learning environment for students.   The state taking another month to evaluate is wholly unnecessary.”

The Niagara County Department of Health today released its weekly COVID-19 update.  The public is also encouraged to visit https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/covid-19-data-new-york for further information.  This site contains state, regional and county data on positive cases, fatalities, hospitalizations and vaccinations, along with various demographic breakdowns and the individual school district dashboard.

The report is as follows:   

	Current Report (Feb 9)	Previous Report (Feb 2)
New positive cases, last 7 days	553	1011
Total Cases (from start of pandemic)	46,504	45,951
Deaths (from start of pandemic)	544	535
Residents with one at least one vaccine dose	146,797	146,506
Daily new cases per 100K residents, 7-day avg.	38	69
Percent of Hospital Beds Available, 7-day avg.       - Eastern Niagara Hospital      - Niagara Falls Memorial      - Mt. St. Mary's	51% 16% 25%	45% 12% 0%