19 employees at Armory Square restaurant contract coronavirus

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Nineteen employees at Margarita’s Mexican Cantina in downtown Syracuse have contracted the coronavirus, the Onondaga County Department of Health confirmed Saturday.

The employees worked at the Armory Square restaurant from Oct. 24 through Nov. 3 from 11 a.m. to between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. Margarita’s Mexican Cantina is a popular restaurant among Syracuse University students.

The exposure comes amid an uptick in COVID-19 cases across Onondaga County and New York state. Active cases also remain high at SU.

Vice Chancellor Mike Haynie, the head of SU’s COVID-19 response, said in a recent statement that more students are contracting the virus from exposure in the central New York community than from superspreader events, such as the three COVID-19 clusters that SU has reported this fall.

The health department also confirmed Sunday that a passenger who rode a Centro bus route to and from SU also tested positive for COVID-19, potentially exposing other riders.

Anyone who rode the SU/Nob Hill 240 route between 8:16 a.m. and 8:40 a.m. on Nov. 4 or 5 should monitor themselves for COVID-19 symptoms, the health department said in a press release.