If we aren’t careful, the reopening process in our area will slow. That’s the message from local leaders who say weekend activity raised some red flags.

"We’re too close right now to take a step backwards," says Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Bob Duffy.

Duffy offered the latest information from the Finger Lakes Reopening Control Room, which is monitoring the economic reopening guidelines.

He says the team has received complaints about large gatherings of people close to each other without face coverings.

"On Friday, our numbers were very, very close, because we had really two surges with infection, just hospitalizations in both Monroe and Ontario County," says Duffy.

He even took to social media, urging people to avoid gathering without the proper protections, stating that a surge in COVID-19 cases would slow efforts to reopen.

"There are businesses that want to reopen. They want to get to Phase Two, Phase Three, Phase Four. If these rates keep going up, it's going to be a very, very slow process getting there. So that was the whole point of what we're putting out on social media," Duffy adds.

Monroe County Commissioner of Public Health Dr. Michael Mendoza also sent messages on social media, following a spike in the number of COVID-19 cases in Monroe County.

"Dr. Mendoza is spot on with that. The spike we had last week, we were all worried that it might have delayed the opening of Phase One," Duffy says.

So the call for patience continues, despite pushback.

"We're just asking for voluntary compliance. People have called, emailed, they see shops open. We pass that along. We just hope that people would adhere to it. We're rounding third base, we have to keep going. There's going to be a vaccine at some point, we just don't want these rates to go up," he says.

Duffy says it's the job of the Finger Lakes Reopening Control Room to monitor and report to the governor, not to create reopening strategies.