Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 remain a concern of health department officials in Onondaga County. 84 people were in the hospital Thursday, and ten people were in the ICU. County Executive Ryan McMahon said the therapeutics for the virus are working better, so people are being discharged from the hospital more quickly.
However, area hospitals are preparing to increase their number of ICU beds.
“What we can’t bank on are these great turn times we’re having with people recovering. People recover when they recover,” said McMahon. “And if you saw a situation where the turn times get worse from people getting, entering the hospital sick to getting better, then that will create more backup. And the infrastructure will get strained.”
With Thanksgiving coming up, experts across the country are warning coronavirus cases will rise as a result of holiday gathering. McMahon hopes the Central New York Community will act responsibly and not make the same mistakes they did on Halloween.
“We know. Everybody knows what Halloween did. And anybody who says Halloween didn’t do anything, you’re wrong. You’re flat out wrong,” said McMahon. “We contact traced. We know for a fact that small gatherings led to cases. We know for a fact that large gatherings led to cases. So, don’t argue with us that Halloween didn’t do anything. It did.”
McMahon said gatherings on Halloween are what pushed the community into the second wave it is experiencing now. The Centers for Disease Control is advising against traveling for Thanksgiving and only celebrating with the people within your household. Additionally, Governor Andrew Cuomo issued a statewide mandate that gatherings cannot exceed ten people in any part of New York.
