Onondaga County is up to seven coronavirus cases

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Onondaga County now has a seventh person who has tested positive for the coronavirus (COVID-19), officials announced Wednesday afternoon.

Onondaga County Health Commissioner Dr. Indu Gupta announced the seventh case during the county’s Noon public briefing.

The seventh case is a female in her 30s, Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon said in a 3 p.m. briefing.

The county’s other coronavirus cases include a woman in her 70s and her husband; a woman in her 20s who had been working in New York City; a traveler from New York City; a traveler from Spain; and a person in their 20s.

“They are from all different age groups. They’re from early 20s to mid-70s to late 70s,” Gupta said. “If you look into these categories, it means anybody is predisposed to have this COVID-19. That is a very strong message we want to put out to the community. Some of the cases are related with travelers. Some aren’t.”

Onondaga County has 21 people under a mandatory quarantine, McMahon added.

McMahon noted that primary care physicians, Upstate Medical University, Crouse Health, and the Syracuse Community Health Center are all testing people for the virus.

“We have many tests outstanding right now. And many tests have come back negative. We’re talking about the positive ones,” McMahon said in his remarks.

He also noted that Onondaga County sent 185 tests to the Wadsworth Center lab in Albany as of Wednesday. As of noon-time Wednesday, the lab got results on 83 of those tests, and 81 were negative.  

“So, two out of our seven [positive cases] came from the Wadsworth lab,” he added. “We’ve already sent 54 tests to the Wadsworth lab [Thursday] morning.”

The Wadsworth Center is a public health laboratory of the New York State Department of Health, located in Albany.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com