Two people in Onondaga County have died of the coronavirus since Sunday, bringing the death toll up to 21, County Executive Ryan McMahon said in a press briefing Monday.

The two individuals were both women with underlying health conditions. One was in her 70s, and the other was in her 80s, McMahon said.

Coronavirus causes COVID-19, a respiratory disease that has infected 253,060 people and 18,611 in New York state. Onondaga County has confirmed 646 cases in total, 236 of which are active. Active cases account for people who’ve tested positive for COVID-19 but have not recovered or died.

“We know that each day comes with some progress but each day we have the reality that this virus is a killer,” McMahon said.

The virus appears to have reached its peak in the region, said Leslie Luke, president of St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center in Syracuse, at the briefing. The hospital sees an average of one and a half admissions per day and is anticipating the number will continue to decrease, he said.

Eleven people in the county have recovered since Sunday, raising the total number of recoveries to 362, McMahon said.

“This is a very good number,” he said. “We always talked about how our (recoveries) curve needs to keep going north, our (active cases) curve needs to flatten and keep going South, and our (confirmed cases) curve needs to start to flatten.”

The amount of COVID-19 tests the county is conducting is better than many other communities in the region, McMahon said. The county has a population of about 460,000 people, and tests are reaching nearly 2% of the population, he said.

The county has been focusing tests mainly on individual and assisted living facilities, as well as nursing homes, McMahon said. High density buildings where a case has been confirmed are also points of focus, he said.

“We’re playing offense with this virus,” McMahon said.

Onondaga County is currently planning ways to begin reopening its economy, McMahon said. Once officials develop a concrete plan, they will approach the state and implement the plan when health professionals deem reopening to be appropriate and safe, he said.

McMahon issued a voluntary shelter-in-place order April 7 which asked residents to leave their homes on altering days based on their birth year. While the voluntary order was set to end after April 21, McMahon said he will decide whether to extend the deadline tomorrow.

“If we social distance, we’ll continue to see that data improve and we’ll have a stronger case to open that economy,” he said.

McMahon also encouraged residents who’ve lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic to visit the county’s economic development webpage to view a list of companies that are hiring. There are many organizations in the area that are still operating and seeking employees, he said

“From the standpoint of folks who are getting very anxious about the economic ruin that many organizations and families are potentially facing, including our local government, I get it. And we are starting that process,” McMahon said.

Published on April 20, 2020 at 9:11 pm

Contact Maggie: mehicks@syr.edu | @maggie_hickss