Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon said Central New York counties will coordinate their reopening strategies at his Friday briefing. McMahon said he has been in communication with leaders in Oneida, Herkimer, Cayuga and other neighboring counties.
They’re working on a plan to present to Governor Andrew Cuomo that will allow the region to restart at its own pace.
“This would require coordination with our health commissioners, coordination with our hospitals, coordination with our emergency management department, coordination with economic development, potential coordination with schools,” said McMahon.
The regional plan will be a phased-in approach, but McMahon said health data needs to improve before anything resumes normal operations. One way county health officials hope to improve numbers is through proactive testing. McMahon said Syracuse Community Health Center and Nascentia Health will work with the County to test employees and residents at assisted living facilities, independent senior homes, and other senior communities.
“When we have resources, we’ll do more with testing,” said McMahon. “Right now we don’t have hundreds of thousands or tens of thousands of tests. But we have the resources to go and do this in populations where we see this virus really preying on our seniors. So we’re going to do everything that we can to save every life that we can.”
This testing will start next week. Nursing home employees will continue to use the Walmart site for testing. Onondaga County reported 19 new positive cases Friday, staying in line with the county’s daily average of new positive cases during the outbreak. McMahon said it was a good day for recoveries. Thirty-one people recovered from the virus in the last 24 hours. 310 total Onondaga County residents have recovered from COVID-19.
