New York State issued clarification Thursday that potentially added 19 deaths to Onondaga County’s COVID-19 death toll. County Executive Ryan McMahon said they are still waiting on final confirmation, but health department officials believe the number of nursing home deaths reported by the state was not included in prior county numbers.
Nursing homes are under the State’s purview, and McMahon said they were waiting on this definition.
“We didn’t have that definition throughout this process,” said McMahon. “Just a couple days ago, I think the number was 17, we were under the assumption that the 17 deaths in nursing homes were people that lived in nursing homes, that died in a hospital or a nursing home, and they were in our 41. We now believe that that 17 is up to 19. And they were not in our 41 total.”
This would bring the total number of deaths in the county to 60. Nursing homes have been the site of COVID-19 outbreaks nationwide, and Onondaga County is feeling the same pinch. Some local facilities have been bringing people who test positive for COVID-19 to the hospital, even when they have little to no symptoms, because they do not have space to quarantine them.
McMahon said to resolve this, nursing homes and the county are working together to assess capacity at different facilities. That way, coronavirus patients can be taken to a home with space for a covid ward, rather than to a hospital.
McMahon also shared some of the economic impact of the pandemic. New sales tax returns show revenue was down 27.6% from last quarter and overall growth fell to negative 3.6%. McMahon said opening will not instantly jolt the economy. It’s going to be a process.
“It shows you how critical it is to start the restart in a safe way because our negative growth won’t stop. It just won’t be as bad,” said McMahon. “Once the restart happens, those payments won’t be very, very, very bad. They’ll just be very, very bad.”
McMahon also renewed his call for aid to local governments from the federal government. He said “bad decisions” will need to be made in June if they do not get assistance.
