Midday News Brief

Governor Hochul announced this morning that, in light of the declining Covid numbers, the state-wide mask mandate for indoor businesses is lifted as of tomorrow. However, she emphasized that the pandemic is far from over. With that in mind, the statewide mask requirement remains in effect at: state-regulated health care settings, state-regulated adult care facilities and nursing homes, correctional facilities, schools and childcare centers, homeless shelters, domestic violence shelters, and buses, bus stations, trains and train stations, subways and subway stations and planes and airports.

Here’s a timely reminder: The deadline for partisan voter registration is now less than a week away. A change of Party enrollment must be received at the Board of Elections, in County Building 1, 15 Main St., Batavia no later than February 14 to be effective immediately. Registration forms may be found in most public buildings and at the Board of Elections Office. To be eligible to vote in a party primary, the voter must be registered with the party holding the primary election.

A local law establishing salaries and providing extra compensation for some Wyoming County officials has been proposed by the Board of Supervisors there. A public hearing will be conducted at 2:30 on March 8 in the supervisor’s chambers at the county Government Center, at 143 North Main St., Warsaw. The local law will be subject to permissive referendum. That means it could be put to a public vote if a certain percentage of the public were to submit enough signatures requesting it.

The number of Intensive Care Unit beds available in the GLOW region has improved slightly but remain low even as COVID-19 numbers decrease. Out of 23 ICU beds across Genesee, Wyoming and Livingston Counties (there are no ICU beds in Orleans), 8 were available as of last Monday. That’s an improvement from Jan. 15, when only three ICU beds were available in our region; however, United Memorial Medical Center and Wyoming County Community Hospital had no ICU beds available at the time. To put it into perspective, overall, the GLOW region has 144 hospital beds. During this survey period, a total of 22 were available to patients. 489 people were hospitalized for COVID-19 across the six-county Finger Lakes Region. United Memorial Medical Center has 41 total beds, of which 11 were available and four of its nine ICU beds were available to patients.

The organizers of this year’s Saint Patrick’s Day parade in Rochester have made another big announcement involving the celebration. They say the theme of the March 12th event will be “The Trinity and the Shamrock.” Thousands of marchers, 12 bands and seven dance schools have already signed up to take part in the event, which has attracted large crowds in the past. Anyone who is interested in learning more, or working as a volunteer for the parade, can sign up online at rochesterparade.com.