Syracuse, N.Y. — Onondaga County uncovered 35 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours, the most in a month and the second highest daily total since the pandemic began.
That drove the number of ongoing infections to 296, the highest number so far in the pandemic. The 35 new infections identified in one day was more than any other day besides March 29, when 48 new cases were confirmed.
Many of those new infections were among people who showed no symptoms, called asymptomatic cases.
“We knew there were more cases, and we’re finding them,” County Executive Ryan McMahon said, referring to more than 400 proactive tests done so far among vulnerable populations. Another 600 proactive tests are in the works, with more in the planning stages.
Of the 35 new cases, 23 were identified from proactive testing among senior living communities, McMahon said. By comparison, only 12 were identified from the community at large.
Of the active cases, 65% are within senior living facilities and among close contacts of previously infected people. Those people are considered more likely than others to become infected, but they also are already in quarantine and being monitored, McMahon said.
The county executive said he’s not sure if the problem in senior living facilities is getting worse or whether the county is just finding the cases now due to proactive testing. Either way, McMahon said, it’s a very hard place to contain such a potent virus.
The fact it remains active in senior facilities could lead to more dark days ahead.
Another person died from COVID-19 overnight, the 30th death so far in Onondaga County, and the 29th death in 29 days this month. The latest victim was a woman in her 80s, of another race besides white or black.
McMahon has warned that more infections would be found as testing ramps up in senior living facilities and at the East Syracuse Walmart. Those proactive tests pick up the virus among people who are not showing symptoms of sickness.
“That’s important, because they can still make others sick,” the county executive said.
Making the numbers seem even worse, the county is notified of new infections days before getting results of all the negative tests, McMahon said. That means that some days will see huge spikes in positives, while other days will see a large batch of negatives.
In addition, Walmart has so far not yet provided the total number of tests done at the East Syracuse site with Quest Diagnostics. McMahon expressed frustration that the county doesn’t know how many tests have been done at that site, because it makes it impossible to know the infection rates among those tested.
The county’s community triage site, which takes average citizens who present COVID-19 symptoms, has seen about 60 tests a day recently, McMahon said. About 7% of those tests have come back positive, according to data to date.
The 35 new infections overnight sent the total number since the pandemic began to 876. Subtracting the 30 deaths and 550 recoveries (up seven overnight), that leaves 296 ongoing infections. That’s the highest number of active infections to date: the record until now was 283 active infections, on April 16.
McMahon noted that the spike in new cases is a result of increased testing among those who show no symptoms. There are expected to be a large number of people cleared as recovered in the coming days, which is expected to bring that active caseload back down, he added.
“We’re in pretty good shape,” McMahon said of the numbers, pointing to the overall decline in community spread of the virus.
There were 39 people in the hospital, up two from a day ago, while the number of people in critical condition remained at eight.
McMahon is still gearing up for a restart on May 15, the earliest date allowed by the state. He argued that finding more cases through proactive testing shouldn’t be a reason to delay a reopening.
“You can’t hold that against us,” McMahon said, of the increase in confirmed cases. Most of those cases are among people within infected buildings, meaning they’ve already been isolated from the community as a whole, he said.
Those clusters of infections pose a low risk to the public as a whole, McMahon argued. They’re not people going to work, they’re not people in the grocery store.
If finding more infections among vulnerable populations is a reason to delay reopening, that won’t provide counties any incentive to do the testing that’s needed, he added.
Confirmed cases by gender and age:
- 494 are female and 382 are male
- 27 are under 19,
- 160 in their 20s,
- 116 in their 30s,
- 122 in their 40s,
- 145 in their 50s,
- 132 in their 60s,
- 82 in their 70s,
- 61 in their 80s,
- 31 in their 90s
Confirmed cases/recoveries by municipality:
- City of Syracuse – 403 total cases, 225 people recovered, 178 active
- Clay – 84 total cases, 63 recovered, 21 active
- Onondaga – 70 total cases, 24 recovered, 46 active
- Manlius – 52 total cases, 38 recovered, 14 active
- DeWitt – 45 total cases, 29 recovered , 16 active
- Salina – 43 total cases, 31 recovered, 12 active
- Camillus – 33 total cases, 28 recovered, 5 active
- Cicero – 29 total cases, 25 recovered, 4 active
- Geddes – 28 total cases, 18 recovered, 10 active
- Lysander – 28 total cases, 18 recovered, 10 active
- Pompey – 21 total cases, 19 recovered, 2 active
- Skaneateles – 15 total cases, 12 recovered, 3 active
- Van Buren – 6 total cases, 2 recovered, 4 active
- Marcellus – 4 total cases, 4 recovered, 0 active
- Otisco – 4 total cases, 4 recovered, 0 active
- LaFayette – 3 total cases, 2 recovered, 1 active
- Elbridge – 2 total cases, 2 recovered, 0 active
- Fabius – 2 total cases, 2 recovered, 0 active
- Spafford – 2 total cases, 2 recovered, 0 active
- Tully – 2 total cases, 2 recovered, 0 active
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Staff writer Douglass Dowty can be reached at [email protected] or 315-470-6070.
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