Onondaga County officials announced another 303 cases of COVID-19 Monday. Two people died in the last day, bringing the total number of deaths in the county to 269.
County Executive Ryan McMahon said Monday he’s a realist, and expects daily case numbers to remain high.
"We know we’re not getting to 20 or 30 or 40 or 50 cases a day anytime soon. You know it just isn’t going to happen,” McMahon said. “It’s about managing the crisis and the medical infrastructure and being smart.”
That means adding 100 more county staffers to the health department to help with contact tracing, and expanding testing for both symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals across Onondaga County.
Currently, there are 228 people hospitalized with the virus. McMahon said a lack of beds isn't a problem yet.
“If this was the first wave, we would probably be in big trouble now, because the hospital stays were so much longer,” he said. “This wave we’re getting people into the hospital, getting the help they need and getting them out faster, which has saved this whole system.”
The issue now is staffing, and McMahon said reactivating retired health professionals and pushing non-hospital professionals into the hospital can help.
McMahon said the best news may be on the vaccine front with vaccine doses earmarked for hard-hit nursing homes.
“The federal government is going work with those doses to get nursing home residents vaccinated. Could be as early as next week. So this is good news,” he said.
While the federal government is leading the vaccine distribution to nursing homes, New York state will lead the next round of vaccinations, with local hospitals.
