Onondaga County COVID-19 death toll rises by four to 127

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The death toll from COVID-19 in Onondaga County has risen to 127 with one hospital death since Tuesday and three additional nursing-home deaths.

Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon on Wednesday announced the deaths to begin his daily coronavirus briefing at the Oncenter.

The deceased in the hospital is a Caucasian female in her 90s. Information about the nursing-home deaths is not available, McMahon noted.

“Certainly, we want to think about their families and we grieve with you and, certainly, we grieve with everyone over this process,” he added.

Onondaga County now has 1,973 cases of COVID-19, up 14 from Tuesday.

Of those recovering from COVID-19, 77 are in a hospital, down eight from Tuesday, and of that figure, 14 are in critical condition, according to McMahon.

Of the 77 in a hospital, 40 are people who are not ill but have yet to test negative for COVID-19 and thus cannot go back to a nursing home. Gov. Andrew Cuomo on May 11 announced a requirement for hospital patients to test negative for the coronavirus before they can be discharged to nursing homes.

“We really have 37 people right now in the hospital that need the hospital care. That number is a very good number … We didn’t even have that number going into phase one,” said McMahon.

McMahon believes that officials have arrived at a solution for some of the people who no longer need hospital care and hopes to discuss the solution on Thursday.

The county executive also expressed confidence that the Central New York region would move to phase two of its reopening, starting this Friday. That will allow the administrative support, finance and insurance, in-person retail, professional services, and real-estate rentals and leasing categories of business to reopen.