With leadership at the Executive Mansion in Albany in disarray, local governments are being forced to take on greater responsibility in the decision-making process as COVID-19 rears its ugly head once more.
Noting that New York State is backing off on mandates and guidelines, Genesee County officials are banding together with administrators from neighboring counties to figure out the best course of action as the number of cases increase and with the reopening of schools just a few weeks away.
“There is no state policy; everybody is on their own,” said Legislature Chair Rochelle Stein during Monday afternoon’s special legislative meeting at the Old County Courthouse. “What we do now – our behavior is really going to matter.”
County Manager Matt Landers told legislators that county managers have restarted discussions on how to handle what he called “a changing landscape.”
“We will not be under the state umbrella where there was a facilitator,” Landers said. “We had our first official meeting today after a long break and we decided to make this a weekly meeting because of the nature of how things are changing.”
He emphasized that public health directors will be included in the talks – “a good step,” he said -- because last time county administrators and public health directors conducted separate meetings.
VACCINATED? THEN NO MASK
Landers said his group is looking at the various county and school policies when it comes to the wearing of face coverings.
“A couple of counties have gone the route of mandating masks for their workforce, regardless of vaccination status. We haven’t gone that route at this point, and I wouldn’t recommend that route as necessary,” he said.
Genesee County employees do not have to wear a mask if they are vaccinated, he said, but need to show proof of vaccination to do so.
He said that Legislature Clerk Pamela LaGrou came up with that idea, and it was applauded by leaders in other counties.
Unvaccinated county employees are required to wear face coverings, however.
“Here, we’re not going to ask vaccination status of any of our workforce, but if you want to take the mask off at work, you have to provide proof of vaccination to your department head,” he said. “So, we have high confidence right now in the county workforce that if you see a county employee with his or her mask off, they have shown that proof. And because of that, we won’t have to rush to have any mask mandate for all of our workers anytime soon.”
FOLLOWING CDC GUIDANCE
Landers said that an interim step before mandating face coverings could be distancing county workers from the public.
“But we’re not there yet either,” he said, “because our transmission level is still low. Still, it’s something we have to start thinking about now. It’s unfortunate that we have to do this (again), but I like the spirit that everyone has in wanting to make sure that we’re being consistent and cooperating.”
Public Health Director Paul Pettit is in constant contact with school district officials, Landers said, with the goal of reaching a point where all schools draft similar guidelines when classes resume.
“There’s no universal set policy (for schools) yet; I think there’s an attempt,” Landers said. “We’re taking the position that we recommend following CDC (Centers for Disease Control) guidelines; in good conscience, we can’t deviate from recommending CDC guidelines. But each of the schools is going to make its own decision.”
GENESEE AT ‘MODERATE’ LEVEL
Genesee County has 25 active cases as of Monday, Landers said. Eleven of them occurred over the weekend, but no one is hospitalized.
He said Genesee is in the “moderate” category and just about to go into “substantial,” which is 28 cases a week on average. The “high” level is 57 cases.
The county manager said that about 20 to 30 percent of the positive cases are vaccinated people, adding that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is “a little less effective” than the Moderna or Pfizer doses.
He said he’s not sure of the percentage of county employees who have been vaccinated, but estimated it around 70 percent – which is higher than the Genesee County number of 59 percent.
The county’s Facebook page has been getting significant hits as the public searches for current information about the coronavirus, Landers said, adding that a press conference is being set up for next week for the sharing of more data.
YUNKER: MUST BE PROACTIVE
In the meantime, he said the county will continue to test and vaccinate.
“… and if the demand is out there, we will increase the testing days and vaccination," he added.
Legislator Marianne Clattenburg mentioned that if school guidelines remain the same as before, more testing will be in order.
Landers said federal funding from the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act will enable the county to place at least one Abbott rapid antigen test machine in each school to quickly test students and to provide BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Cards for asymptomatic testing.
Legislator Christian Yunker urged the county brace for another wave.
“We should probably be prepared to deal with another stint of rising cases,” he said. “It’s probably going to happen, so however we can be proactive to curb in those problems (the better off we’ll be).”
