If you’re planning a trip to Wegmans for more cranberry sauce, the gym to burn off that pecan pie or to an Italian restaurant after Thanksgiving when you’re sick of turkey, you’re going to need a mask if you live in Erie County. 

On Monday, County Executive Mark Poloncarz announced that all patrons and public-facing employees will have to wear masks starting Tuesday.

"Unfortunately, we have had some of the worst days with regards to new cases of COVID. Our third, fourth and sixth highest days we’ve ever had," Poloncarz told Capital Tonight.

One of the reasons the county executive said he reinstituted a mask mandate is because the county’s hospitals are either at or near capacity.

"We are getting the stories from ambulance companies who are picking up people, taking them to the hospital: it’s taking an hour just to get them out of the ambulance and into the hospital, and then it might be seven or eight hours or more before that individual can actually get a room," Poloncarz said. "We are very worried about our hospitals being overrun."

While it’s not exclusively COVID-19 patients who are contributing to the crowding at hospitals, COVID-19 is spiking on the eve of a long holiday weekend.

"We expect there to be a much bigger spike in hospitalizations of COVID cases over the next 10 days," Poloncarz said.