The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Onondaga County has increased by 162% since last Friday, County Executive Ryan McMahon said Friday. 

The novel coronavirus causes COVID-19, a respiratory disease that has infected over a million people and killed more than 58,300 worldwide. Onondaga County has confirmed 21 cases of the virus since Thursday, and 322 cases in total have been reported in the area, McMahon said at a media briefing. 

“Geographically, the virus is everywhere,” McMahon said. “The virus does not care where you live, what you look like, who you are. It just cares to attack you.”

Onondaga County is the medical hub for central New York and northern New York, McMahon said. When other areas in the state run out of testing, individuals often come to the county and receive tests, he said. 

Over 4,400 people have been tested for the virus in the county, McMahon said. At least 800 cases from all of the state’s counties were confirmed using the areas’s medical infrastructure, he said. 

“We are the frontlines for central New York and northern New York and I think it’s important to be recognized as the front lines for a whole region of this state by the federal government and the state of New York,” McMahon said.

Onondaga County is also requesting donations of personal protective equipment, McMahon said. The county distributes any protective equipment it has to hospitals, nursing homes and emergency management providers or volunteers and does not currently have a surplus, he said. 

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Friday that he will issue an executive order allowing the National Guard to redistribute unused supplies to hospitals at frontlines of the pandemic.

The governor has not asked for any of Onondaga County’s ventilators or personal protective equipment at this time, McMahon said. The state will likely not ask for donations, as it has been helping to provide some of the county’s supply, he said.

The county will do its best to address the needs of New York state once it has dealt with all local cases, he said.

“The good news is our community, whether we are sick or not, is all in this together,” McMahon said. 

Published on April 3, 2020 at 6:04 pm

Contact Maggie: mehicks@syr.edu | @maggie_hickss