BUFFALO, N.Y. — While a State of Emergency is being allowed to expire in Erie County at noon on Saturday, COVID case rates and hospitalizations are still not as low as last year, when that emergency remained in effect.
But a local infectious disease expert told 2 On Your Side that he believes we're now in the next phase of the pandemic.
"We are transitioning from pandemic to endemic mode," Dr. Thomas Russo with the University at Buffalo said. "And what endemic mode means is that we still have COVID out there, but the number of cases are low and manageable.
"It's important to note that we still have more COVID out there than we did in our previous lows, which were last summer."
Dr. Russo says he still expects cases to increase each fall and winter moving forward, similar to flu season.