A seventh person has died of COVID-19 in Onondaga County, officials said Thursday. According to a news release, health officials say the person was a white male in his late-50s with underlying health conditions who was hospitalized.
As of Thursday, there were 442 positive cases of COVID-19 in the county. 43 people are hospitalized, 23 of them in critical condition. This is the sixth death in the county in the last eight days. All of the deaths involved people with underlying conditions.
Like New York state, Onondaga County has seen the rate of infections decrease over the last several days, but the number of deaths have increased. New York reported 799 deaths in the last day, the highest daily death total since the start of the pandemic.
Officials believe social distancing is having an effect, and McMahon pushed that during his briefing Thursday. Onondaga, Madison, Broome and Oswego counties are asking residents to alternate days they go out for essential items based on their birth year.
"What was normal behavior a few weeks ago needs to be modified," McMahon said. "So please stay home for two weeks."
McMahon said officials are now trying to show how the virus has spread through the community. So how did we get to 442 positive cases of COVID-19 in Onondaga County in less than a month? People, while they were symptomatic or not, playing cards with friends, going to work, visiting elderly family members or attending potluck dinners. These are some of the origins of cases health department investigators have tracked down as they investigate every positive coronavirus test in the county.
McMahon said once you start looking at the individual cases, it’s quite easy to see how one person can infect dozens of people.
"Nobody was trying to get anyone sick. But you were sick and you had symptoms, or you didn’t have symptoms and you passed it on, and here we are," he said.
McMahon also went out of his way to applaud people who have self-quarantined, saying they gave up personal freedom to save others. He said that’s what has to happen in order for central New Yorkers' lives to get back to normal.
