FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contacts:

December 12, 2021 Matt Landers, Genesee

County Manager
585-344-2550 ext. 2204

JOINT STATEMENT FROM GENESEE AND ORLEANS COUNTY

PUBLIC AND HEALTH OFFICIALS

[Rochelle M. Stein, Chair, Genesee County Legislature; Lynne M. Johnson, Chair,

Orleans County Legislature; John C. Welch Jr., Orleans County Chief Administrative
Officer, L. Matthew Landers, Genesee County Manager and Paul A. Pettit, Genesee
and Orleans Counties Public Health Director]

BATAVIA, NEW YORK – Due to the current COVID-19 surge, New York State
Governor Hochul announced on Friday, December 10th that starting Monday,
December 13, 2021 through January 15, 2022, that masks will be required in all
public places unless businesses or venues implement a vaccine requirement.
However, Governor Hochul did not clearly state how enforcement of the mask
mandate will occur.
“The Genesee and Orleans County Health Departments (GO Health) will
continue to focus our efforts on offering free vaccination and testing clinics as
well as conducting case investigations,” said Paul Pettit, Genesee and Orleans
Public Health Director. “We do not have the capacity to enforce mask mandates
and enforcing mandates is not the best use of our limited resources at this point
of the pandemic response. As we have throughout the pandemic in line with
CDC guidance, we continue to advise residents to properly wear masks indoors
when social/physical distancing is not possible.”
“As we did during the last surge, Genesee County will take the approach with our
community to Educate to Cooperate in regards to the benefits of masking and
social distancing,” stated Rochelle Stein, Genesee County Legislature Chair.
“In Orleans County, we will continue to focus our county resources on vaccinations,
contact tracing, testing and working to keep children in school,” said Lynne Johnson,
Orleans County Legislature Chair. “We held two clinics this week, one for testing and
one for booster shots. We continue to seek more testing resources from the state,
because we believe identifying and isolating those who test positive is the greatest need
right now to reduce the spread.”

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STATEMENT BY GO OFFICIALS
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To reduce the spread in our communities, we need to increase vaccination rates

and increase testing in order to identify and isolate those who are positive with
COVID-19. However, rural county health departments continue to have issues
securing additional testing resources. GO Health and local officials continue to
advocate for additional resources and assistance from the state in order to have
free testing in our communities.
Genesee and Orleans County Public and Health officials encourage those who
have not been vaccinated or have not received their booster shot, to do so as
soon as possible. Booster shots have just been approved for 16 and 17 year
olds, 6 months after their last shot. Visit https://gohealthny.org/covid-19-vaccine-
information/ or www.vaccine.gov to make an appointment. If you are experiencing
symptoms, please stay home and seek testing. For information on COVID-19
testing, visit https://gohealthny.org/covid-19-testing-information/ or
https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/find-test-site-near-you
COVID-19 is not the gift to give this season, please plan to protect your loved
ones by getting your vaccine and/or booster.
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