Erie County has received several inquiries from local businesses regarding the County Executive’s statement during today’s COVID-19 press conference about private businesses and how they should be operating during this ongoing situation.

To clarify, per NY Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s Executive Order No. 202.1 dated March 12, 2020:

“Any place of business or public accommodation, and any gathering or event for which attendance is anticipated to be fewer than five hundred people, shall operate at no greater than fifty percent occupancy, and no greater than fifty percent of seating capacity, for thirty days effective on Friday, March 13, 2020, except that any theater seating five hundred or more attendees for a live performance located in a city of one million or more shall not hold any further performances after 5pm on March 12, 2020.”

The two preceding directives shall not apply to a school, hospital, nursing home, other medical office or facility as determined by the Commissioner of Health, mass transit or mass transit facility, governmental facility, law enforcement facility, or retail establishments including grocery stores. The Commissioner of Health may allow for businesses that are not public gathering spaces to exceed five hundred persons if the occupancy is less than fifty percent capacity subject to public health review.”

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