Hospital capacity, and testing continues to be at the forefront of central New York’s fight against the most recent surge of COVID-19 cases.
The latest daily coronavirus figures from Onondaga County may have leveled out, but are still concerning. 212 new positive cases, and three deaths reported yesterday. The biggest number that concerns County Executive Ryan McMahon, the 145 people currently fighting the virus from a hospital bed; including 26 in ICUs.
"The time it takes when someone is hospitalized to discharge for a regular hospital stay is between four and five days, an ICU stay is six and seven days,” McMahon said. “But the reality is that people are getting sick and they’re needing to go to the hospital to get better.”
Governor Cuomo in his daily briefing yesterday also emphasized hospital capacity as a centerpiece of a winter plan for the surge of cases. He noted a series of strategies, including increased bed capacity and “flex and surge” plans to deal with the higher number of patients being hospitalized. But getting those hospital numbers down means a lower overall positive caseload, McMahon said.
“The best way to stabilize our hospital numbers is to get our caseloads down, and that is something we can do.”
Testing is also part of the state’s strategy, and on that front, McMahon said the county continues to expand its testing capability. It’s testing 5,000 people a day, and that includes hundreds of school students and staff. All this data is plugged into state metrics, which could lead to more of a shutdown, or an easing of restrictions.
"We’ve had ups and down with testing because of the holiday,” McMahon said. “I think you let things settle out for a week, get good testing in, see where the data is, look at hospital numbers, look at where the data is. And then I think the state will look at new maps for the counties.”
Currently, most of Onondaga County is either in a yellow or orange zone, which dictates what businesses can be opened or closed. McMahon said state figures show almost two-thirds of cases are driven by small gatherings during this latest surge.
"So, now we know that,” he said. “Now, we work on that. We continue to modify that, so some of the economic restrictions on our neighbors and businesses can be removed.”
McMahon held his Monday briefing from his home yesterday: He’s being quarantined after being exposed to the virus from a family member. So far, he has tested negative.
