Onondaga County confirms 99 new coronavirus cases, highest recorded

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Onondaga County officials confirmed 99 new cases of coronavirus on Friday, the county’s highest single-day jump in cases since the pandemic began.

The increase comes after two COVID-19 clusters emerged among Syracuse University students following several off-campus gatherings last week. The university has confirmed 24 COVID-19 cases since Wednesday among students in central New York and two cases among employees. 

At a press briefing Friday, Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon attributed 21 of the 99 cases to higher education. SU has tested and placed all the students who attended the parties under quarantine, McMahon said.

Onondaga County previously set a record on Wednesday for the highest single-day increase in cases, with 70 cases. McMahon said there have been close to 170 new cases in the past 48 hours, and he expects to report a large number of new cases again on Saturday. 

Of the new cases, 68 are the result of community spread, McMahon said. There have been no deaths since yesterday, and there are currently 24 people in the county hospitalized with the virus.

He said another 14 cases are related to individuals who traveled outside central New York. McMahon urged residents to receive testing when they return from other states and to follow New York state guidelines. 

“Everybody needs to wake up right now from COVID fatigue,” he said.

McMahon also attributed the spread of the virus to large gatherings at restaurants and bars. The county will send out enforcement units this weekend to monitor large gatherings, he said.

The county has also received numerous complaints about large parties and will follow up on them, he said.

“It’s here. It’s in every town in the county, in every part of the city,” he said. “The virus is here, we need to start to starve this virus again.”