Two more people in Onondaga County have died of COVID-19…a man and woman in their 70s with underlying health conditions. 39 remain in the hospital, and 14 are critical. Meanwhile, County Executive Ryan McMahon highlighted some good news in his daily update. The number of active cases is the lowest it’s been since April 3rd…at 236. That’s down 43 from Thursday.
For the first time, the county released the number of active COVID-19 cases in each community (see below). Several communities have very few or no cases, meaning earlier cases have recovered. McMahon says that's no reason to be comfortable.
"The virus is still here. We had 11 cases of community spread. They had people they were in contact with whom we had to quarantine. We're getting better everyday. But this is not time to celebrate the success and not social distance. Let's celebrate success as a community and continue to social distance."
McMahon reminds residents that they are some of the only tools we have to mitigate the spread of the virus, and thanked them for their help.
As the community begins to heal, McMahon says that naturally merits a conversation about when to start reopening parts of the economy. He says it he's continuing to meet with other county leaders, public health officials, hospitals, business sectors, and other stakeholders about just when and what to include in phase one of a restart. McMahon says they're working to come up with a plan they can present to the state that answers some key questions for health officials.
"Can we track COVID by doing this. 'Where do you have concerns? I have concerns here, let's hold off on that for now.' We get something on paper and present it to [county health commissioner] Dr. [Indu] Gupta and her team. It's all about their ability to identify and track COVID in real time. We have the capacity now...we have three hospitals that can give us rapid testing results. We're getting to a good spot."
But McMahon declined to give specifics about when they're aiming to start re-opening, and which businesses that might include.
LIST OF ACTIVE CASES BY COMMUNITY
Syracuse - 153
Clay - 25
Manlius - 16
DeWitt - 15
Onondaga - 19
Salina - 8
Camillus - 5
Cicero - 2
Geddes - 4
Lysander - 4
Pompey - 2
Skaneateles - 3
Van Buren - 2
Lafayette - 1
Fabius - 1
Spafford - 1
Marcellus, Otisco, Elbridge, and Tully - 0
