COVID-19 cases have been on the rise in Onondaga County recently, and there’s a dispute between state and county officials on what types of tests to count. Up until April 5, the county was including at-home test results in its overall total, which pushed the county’s COVID-positive rates much higher than the rest of the state. The state has since told the county to count them separately. Deputy County Executive for Human Services Ann Rooney said not counting at-home tests makes total case numbers unclear.
“Our worry is that we don’t have accurate reporting on case counts. And the other thing that was very important to us because for a lot of people that reporting of that at-home test was what they used to let their employer know that they would be missing work.”
Rooney said in Onondaga County, they’ve been treating all positive tests the same and believes that the at-home tests provide reliable results. She also said they help prevent community spread simply by helping people stay home instead of going out to get a PCR test. Rooney said it’s a fast way to get an answer if you think you have been exposed.
“If somebody in their family or they’ve come in close contact with, tells them they have COVID, then they take a test. And this is a really good practice, I think that people have them on hand and then can cut that spread off because in most cases they may not have symptoms, but the test showed that, yeah you were exposed, and you do have COVID.”
Rooney said county officials are continuing to hand out at-home tests, with over 6,700 test kits handed out at an event earlier this week. Current numbers from County Executive Ryan McMahon reflect the change in reporting. There were 159 lab confirmed cases and 270 self-reported home test cases. Two more people have been hospitalized since April 5