Onondaga County has lost a 5th resident from COVID-19, a man in his early 60's with significant underlying health conditions. Four out of the 5 deaths in the county were males and 1 female. We've added 15 cases since Saturday with a total of 364 cases for a total of 246 active cases, 127 of which are in the City of Syracuse. Currently, 28 people are hospitalized and 17 are in critical condition.
Some good news, 113 people have recovered from the virus and were released from mandatory quarantine. County Executive Ryan McMahon is worried that people are becoming a little too comfortable and not taking social distancing seriously and limiting interactions with groups of 10 or less not seriously enough.
"We can't go the other way and be comfortable with this. This disease, this virus is a a killer and it has killed 5 of our neighbors and we need everybody to recognize that... and I'm asking for everybody as the community to buy-in because now's the time that we can flatten this curve."
McMahon calls the next two weeks critical and he has a grim projection, if residents don't take the necessary precautions they've been asked to do.
"If we want to just think it's ok to have 2,000, 3,000, 4,000 cases, we're going to put our hospitals in a position where they're going to fail. And then our death numbers are going to skyrocket. That's the reality of this."
McMahon pointed out that seemingly healthy individuals can actually be a carrier and pass it on to the most vulnerable in our community. He announced a new Executive Order in order to "starve the virus" because he says the county has seen some trends of people gathering. Golf courses in the county - with the exception of State-owned courses - will be closed starting Monday, April 6th at 8PM through the 28th.
"We need shared sacrifice across the board in this community now. The message for those on the golf course when we're asking everybody else to stay at home are conflicting messages."
McMahon then proceeded to tell the public he needed everyone to buy into staying at home by asking for a voluntary shelter in place for two weeks beginning Tuesday, April 7th through April 21st.
"For us to starve this virus, I'm asking everyone to voluntarily to do the following to shelter in place, unless you're considered an essential employee to an essential business. If you were born in an even year, please go out and get your necessary items along with your walks in the parks on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. If you were born in an odd year, please go out and get your necessary items and utilizing our public parks on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays."
McMahon says for the first week on Sunday, April 12th people with odd numbered birth years go out to the grocery store, pharmacy and public parks - and the following Sunday, April 19th - people with even numbered birth years can go out. The idea is to alternate and reduce the number of people out at the same time and keeping people at home, if they don't need to go out. The County Executive stressed that it's a voluntary process but, all too necessary.
"And if we want to get back to normal, we want to get back to work and school, we need to flatten the curve and we need to flatten it now. This will help with that. There's no way for us to enforce it; only we can do this together," said McMahon. "So, I'm asking for your shared sacrifice in this process. The longer we resist social distancing, the longer we're going to be at this. It's the science. There's algorithms that suggest if we don't do better with social distancing, we will be into this process into the summer."
McMahon continued,"Think about what that means for your family’s economic situation, your business, your local government's economic situation. We cannot afford it. The virus is looking for new hosts, the only way it can spread is through new hosts, that's why we need to starve it. Staying at home saves lives."
McMahon's also calling for essential workers to stay at home if they're ill, and notify his office if their workplaces are pressuring them to work.
