ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Monroe County is working to avoid business closures as the winter surge of COVID-19 cases continues.

That's the goal of the Vax-Boost-Mask - Let's Keep Monroe Open campaign announced on Monday by local leaders and the heads of Rochester's biggest health systems. The idea is that no business should have to shut down during the county's state of emergency while trying to level off and eventually drop the number of hospitalizations in the Rochester region.

County Executive Adam Bello says Let's Keep Monroe Open posters distributed to businesses and organizations will show customers that those locations are providing a safe indoor space. Beyond masking, health officials continued to urge people to consult trusted medical sources, get tested, get vaccinated and get booster shots.

"This year, we expect the flu to have a normal season, which will further stress our hospitals," said County Executive Adam Bello. "That said, the surge in COVID cases, the flu season and the coming omicron variant do not mean that we have to shut down our lives again. Let me be clear, we do not need to shut down our schools and businesses to get through this. What we do need is to be smart, respectful and considerate of others."

The event was held at Wegmans Conference Center, where the company’s president and CEO said Wegmans supports the campaign.

“This is our hometown and we all care deeply about the health and safety of our community and we also would like to keep our community open," Colleen Wegman said.

The Vax-Boost-Mask campaign promoted by Wegmans and community leaders is about keeping businesses open during this difficult time. But medical leaders in our community have a different level of concern.

Currently, the Finger Lakes region has among the higher positivity rates in the state with hundreds in hospitals.

"We're getting to the point, if we continue to admit COVID patients, to our ICU, that we're going to have to limit care that we provide," UR Medicine chief medical officer Dr. Michael Apostolakos. "Now we're talking about essential surgeries that would have to be stopped in order to bring staff in to care for more patients. Non-COVID illness will be severe in this community.”

Beds in both the UR Medicine and Rochester Regional Medical Centers are at or over capacity and the health professionals believe Omicron is likely already in the community.

“This is preventable with vaccination, with boosters, with masks," Apostolakos said. "If we do those things as a community and we've done it before, we can have enough services to provide health care for all our community. Both your URMC and RHS are here to help the community. What we're asking for is a little more help.”

Bello says he has no plans to follow in the footsteps of New York City, where there are widespread shutdowns. The county executive said he is not looking at closing schools or adding more restrictions.

“If you're not doing it for yourself, do it for Wegmans," Bello said. "Do it for the business owners. Do it for the workers to do everything we can to slow the spread here."

“We greatly appreciate all of our customers who are already wearing masks in our stores today," Wegmans said. "And we are asking for everyone's support.”

Monday's announcement came on the same day that drug company Moderna said early data shows its booster should offer good protection against the omicron variant.