Onondaga County has confirmed 53 coronavirus cases as of Monday afternoon, County Executive Ryan McMahon said at a press briefing.

The number of confirmed cases jumped from 13 on Friday to 45 on Sunday. The county has tested 1,177 people, and will receive hundreds more test results in the coming days, McMahon said.

“We’re going to see numbers go up, but that’s good,” McMahon said. “Today is not one of the spikes we’ve seen yesterday or the day before, but we have more testing coming in.”

The novel coronavirus causes COVID-19, a respiratory disease that has infected more than 370,000 people and killed over 16,000 globally. Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday confirmed 20,875 total cases of COVID-19 in the state, an increase of 5,707 from Sunday.

Of the county’s 53 cases, 57% are among people under 50 years old and 15% are among people over 70, McMahon said.

The number of referrals from the county’s triage test site at the Syracuse Community Health Center has been decreasing since last week, McMahon said. The county will likely see a spike in confirmed cases of the virus as over 300 test results from last Wednesday come in, he said.

McMahon and Onondaga County Health Commissioner Indu Gupta also said they’re looking for people who visited Ascioti’s Market in Solvay on March 17 between 12:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. Customers who were at the market on St. Patrick’s Day may have been exposed to the virus through an employee who has tested positive, and should contact the county or their doctor, the officials said.

The county does not have a shortage of medical supplies such as masks and ventilators, McMahon said. McMahon expressed support yesterday for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to have the federal government invoke the Defense Production Act to require factories to manufacture medical supplies.

McMahon encouraged county residents to adhere to social distancing guidance from public officials. His office has received alarming social media videos showing residents ignoring government advice about distancing, he said.

“You have some blatant situations where these individuals know better, and they refuse to change their behavior when that’s exactly what we need everybody to do,” McMahon said.

Published on March 23, 2020 at 9:52 pm

Contact Michael: msessa@syr.edu | @MichaelSessa3