A sixth person in Onondaga County has died of the coronavirus, County Executive Ryan McMahon said in a press briefing Tuesday. 

The victim was a woman in her 70s with underlying medical conditions, McMahon said. 

The coronavirus causes COVID-19, a respiratory disease that has infected at least 1.4 million people and killed over 82,000 worldwide. There are currently 397 reported cases of the virus in Onondaga County, and 38 people are in the hospital, McMahon said.

“This disease is a killer and our community at large needs to start recognizing that more and taking this very very seriously,” McMahon said. 

Many of the county’s recently-reported cases are linked to social gatherings that don’t need to happen, he said. Between 12% and 13% of total cases in Onondaga County are contact cases, which arise from individuals coming into contact with family members or people in their immediate household.

Data and investigation is now showing that many of the county’s cases are primarily the result of people going to work while sick, holding unnecessary recreational gatherings and visiting elderly relatives, McMahon said. 

“We have many cases now where people are visiting their loved ones with good intentions and they are getting them sick,” McMahon said. “We implement policies because we are seeing data that merits decision making. Please keep that in mind.”

Onondaga County implemented a voluntary shelter-in-place order Sunday to improve social distancing compliance. The measure went into place today and is set to run through April 21. 

The county is asking residents born in odd-numbered years to leave their homes Monday, Wednesday and Friday for essential travel, McMahon said. Those born in even-numbered years may leave on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

“For us to avoid the success we have to have to avoid long term pain, let’s take two weeks and do the right thing and stay home,” McMahon said.

Published on April 8, 2020 at 1:22 am

Contact Maggie: mehicks@syr.edu | @maggie_hickss