Onondaga County confirmed 28 cases of coronavirus Saturday, bringing its total number of reported cases to 774. 

Of the 28 cases, 14 are related to senior living facilities and 11 are due to community spread, County Executive Ryan McMahon said at a media briefing. The county has been proactively testing all employees and residents of senior living facilities to isolate the virus, he said.

“We know it really preys on our seniors more,” McMahon said. “We are going to our community’s most vulnerable and we’re testing them. By boxing that in, we’re boxing in risk to the rest of the community.”

The coronavirus causes COVID-19, a respiratory disease that has infected 282,143 people and killed 16,599 in New York state. Twenty-five people in Onondaga County have died from the virus as of Saturday. 

Onondaga County is currently monitoring 244 active cases of COVID-19, McMahon said. Active cases account for people who have contracted the virus but have not recovered or died. 

There are currently 39 patients hospitalized due to COVID-19, and 11 are in critical condition, McMahon said. 

The county will continue proactively testing essential employees, McMahon said. The next wave of testing, which will include home health care workers, will begin next week, he said.

“We’re looking to find the virus so that we can essentially isolate it,” McMahon said. “We’re finding pockets of the virus that we didn’t find before.”

McMahon encouraged residents to continue practicing social distancing. Social distancing has helped limit the community spread in the county, he said. 

County officials are working with surrounding counties and state officials on a phased plan for restarting central New York’s economy, McMahon said. Many businesses will remain closed or continue operating remotely in the first phase of the restart, he said.

“A restart is not just a phase-in of economic activity, but it’s really a phase-in of human behavior again,” McMahon said. “It’s very complicated.”

Published on April 25, 2020 at 7:55 pm

Contact Mira: mlberenb@syr.edu