SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon on Friday reported 149 additional cases of COVID-19, the highest single-day amount during the pandemic, to bring the total number of infections to 5,930.
McMahon on Thursday had reported 98 additional COVID-19 cases as well.
In a special Friday briefing at the Oncenter, McMahon also reported 49 people with COVID-19 are recovering in a hospital, which is up seven from Thursday, including six in intensive care. The county is monitoring 709 active cases, he added.
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“The more cases we have, the more hospitalizations we get. It’s a fact,” McMahon told reporters. “We’ve gotten better at treating our sick in the hospitals with therapeutics, which is good news. But we cannot allow these cases to get out of control and expect that people who are sick, outside of COVID-19, will get the proper care they need at the hospital. That’s what it’s about. It’s about maintaining our medical infrastructure for every sick person, not just somebody with COVID-19.”
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has also taken notice of the increase in cases in Onondaga County and plans to discuss the micro-cluster strategy for the area. The micro-cluster strategy seeks to “tackle COVID-19 hot spots that may come with the fall and winter weather.”
The strategy — announced Oct. 17 — is predicated on three principles: refined detection, specific and calibrated mitigation, and focused enforcement.
“We are going to modify some micro-cluster zones in response to declining positivity rates. In Erie, Monroe, Onondaga counties, we’re going to study them over the weekend. We’re going to talk to the elected officials over the weekend, try to find out exactly what is going on, so that we can design a micro-cluster strategy that is responsive. But at these numbers, and in these areas, a micro-cluster response is appropriate,” Cuomo said in a Friday news release. “We tailor the micro-cluster strategy to the particulars of that area, and therefore we want to have conversations over the weekend and then I’ll have an announcement on Monday as to exactly what we’re going to do. Those are the highest places in the state, but again, they’re lower than Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.”
McMahon had noted in his Thursday coronavirus briefing that the Friday case numbers would be high again.
((THURSDAY, NOV. 5 ARTICLE))
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon on Thursday reported 98 additional COVID-19 cases to bring the total number of infections in Onondaga County to 5,782.
“[Friday], we’ll have a high case day again. We’re going to have a very high case day [on Friday],” McMahon said during his coronavirus briefing held Thursday afternoon at the Oncenter.
Onondaga County reported 99 virus cases on Oct. 30, the county’s highest single-day amount during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The county also reported 94 cases on Wednesday. The Thursday data didn’t include any deaths.
McMahon also reported 42 people with COVID-19 are recovering in a hospital, representing 7 percent of the county’s active cases, which currently total 589.
“Again, we’re getting into a range where we haven’t been in a while,” the county executive noted.
Those in the hospital include five recovering in the intensive care unit, he added.
Of the 98 new cases, 11 are related to higher education and five are related to K-12, including four remote learners, according to McMahon.
“[The] remote learner is not going into the building. They’re getting [the virus] in the community, like others,” he said.
The new cases also include, what McMahon referred to, as a “very active” traveler, someone who had traveled to three different states.
Another 26 of the 98 new cases are from household contacts.
“The data shows us, out of the 98 cases today, [the household contacts are] going to probably lead to 12 new cases, at least, for the community,” McMahon said. “The positive with household contacts is we’ve already put you into a quarantine. Going back and having to contact trace and try to box in that specific COVID network isn’t very hard.”
The 26 household contacts, he noted, is about 25 percent of the Thursday cases, and it’s a figure the county executive called a “big number.”
The cases also include three residents in a senior facility, but McMahon wasn’t sure which one. And 67 of the Thursday cases are from community spread, and the county is aware of the source of 31 of those cases, he noted.
