Onondaga County reports three additional COVID-19 deaths

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon on Wednesday said three people had died from a COVID-19 infection since the Tuesday update, bringing the county’s death toll to 82.

The deceased include a Caucasian female in her 90s, who died in a hospital, and two individuals who had been in a nursing home.

Onondaga County now has 1,488 positive cases of COVID-19, up 63 from Tuesday.

“We know that cases are going to go up when you do this kind of testing,” McMahon said, referring to the large rise in testing in the county in recent days.

Of the 1,488 positive cases, 56 people are recovering in a hospital, up two from Tuesday. Of those in a hospital, 15 are in critical condition, up one from yesterday, according to McMahon.

A total of 764 people have recovered from the virus, he added.

Testing

To this point, Onondaga County has administered a total of 20,312 tests — 19,483 of which have been returned. The number of tests returned since Tuesday totals 1,443, the county executive said.

“This is a massive number of returned tests, which represents the proactive testing that we’ve been doing,” McMahon said.

Onondaga County sent out 1,779 tests since Tuesday.

“Our figure alone exceeds the regional mandate of 775 daily administered tests to reopen. It more than doubles it,” he noted. “We now have 829 pending tests.”

McMahon has said he believes Onondaga County will meet the daily testing component of the state’s reopening criteria for this Friday, even though New York has yet to give Central New York approval for a reopening. The county executive showed chart data indicating that the CNY region had a seven-day average of 845 tests per day, above the mandated figure of 775.