Westchester County Executive George Latimer has authorized a potential state of emergency to prepare for a potential major spike in COVID-19 cases.

Latimer says there has been an uptick in cases since the Thanksgiving holiday, so between the holiday season and the new omicron variant, the county executive says they want to be prepared.

While the declaration won't involve any specific mandates for vaccines, masks or gatherings, it does give Latimer more power to control the county's future response if cases, hospitalizations, infection rate and deaths continue to go up.

He says it's a proactive move that currently only raises the level of concern about the current status of COVID-19 in Westchester. Latimer says this serves as a warning to make sure people and business organizations get vaccinated and wear masks indoors before the numbers really spike and the government has to step in.

There are four indicators Latimer is watching, and three of them are already above the threshold the county sets to trigger a state of emergency. There are four indicators health officials are watching closely - infection rates, hospitalizations, active cases and deaths. "How these four indicators move in the days to come will be the determining factor of what actions we take as a government," says Latimer.

Latimer reports that there are 11 hospitals with roughly 2,700 beds in Westchester and one of the biggest concerns is making sure health care facilities are not overrun ahead of an expected rise in cases for the rest of the winter. "The single most important metric is how many people are hospitalized, are severely sick and does it tax our hospital systems."

Latimer is calling on residents and private businesses to take matters into their own hands - and take steps such as getting booster shots and requiring masks indoors - before the local government is forced to step up and enforce certain protocols.

Latimer announced the state of emergency as part one of a five-part plan to get COVID under control locally.

A spokesperson tells News 12 more information on the other four parts will be released soon.

The good news is that Westchester is in much better shape than last year at this time. Latimer says there are currently just over 2,800 active COVID-19 cases compared to more than 5,000 at this same point last year.

Also the county has a more than 90% vaccination rate - among the highest in the state. "We are not yet at that kind of a situation that requires us to go to the extreme measures that we would have needed to have done if we never had a vaccine at all," says Latimer.

County-run vaccination sites are also part of the plan to get people vaccinated, and there are plans to once again use the County Center as a vaccination site but on a smaller scale than the state-run facility.