Onondaga County ends symptomatic testing at CNY Regional Market

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon says the symptomatic testing that’s been available at the CNY Regional Market ended this past Friday.

The facility is needed for other purposes and “right now, we don’t quite frankly need it,” McMahon said during his Monday afternoon coronavirus briefing at the Oncenter.

“Testing demand has really dropped off and so … like everything, we pivot with this virus. When testing demand slows down, we’ll slow down some of our options,” McMahon said in his remarks. “It doesn’t make sense for us to have testing open for five or 10 people at a facility when they can go to other places to get the test.”

Symptomatic testing sites are still available at the New York State Fairgrounds and at Upstate University Hospital’s Community campus in the town of Onondaga, along with area urgent-care centers, McMahon noted.

“Certainly, if you’re symptomatic, you still have ample places to go where insurance is going to cover you,” he added.

McMahon opened his remarks by reporting no additional COVID deaths, a 7-day positive test average of 1.5 percent, and 55 new virus cases to bring the total count to 35,259 cases since March 2020.

Onondaga County is also dealing with 688 active cases, and 59 people are currently in a hospital with COVID, including 12 in the intensive-care unit.