Oneida County has the highest number of cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic arrived, and county officials are urging residents to take steps to head off restrictions of the kind imposed on other parts of upstate New York, including neighboring Onondaga County.
With 36 new test-confirmed cases announced Monday, the county now has 459 active cases, including 284 in the past week, County Executive Anthony Picente Jr. said during the county’s first COVID-19 briefing in several weeks.
“These are not numbers. These are real people, people who are sick, who are out of work, people who are hospitalized,” Picente said.
The average number of new cases, expressed over a rolling three-day period to even out fluctuations in daily tests, stood Monday at 43.3, down slightly from Sunday, but still higher than what were considered previous peaks, of 33 June 28, when testing had increased substantially, and 32 on May 5, when the pandemic was still new and testing was only beginning to ramp up.
Testing has greatly expanded, from about 192 on a seven-day average in early May, to about 1,000 in late June to 2,800 now, making it more likely more cases would be caught. But Picente and Health Director Phyllis Ellis said it’s clear that cases have surged in the past two to three weeks.
In addition, Ellis said, early on cases were mostly linked to facilities such as nursing homes, group homes and prisons, but now those have tapered and cases are in the general community. Of the 459 known active cases, 107 are linked to congregate facilities and 352 considered community cases.
“With this many numbers there’s not one group that we can pinpoint and say we have 50 cases but 40 of them all came out of a facility. Unfortunately we can’t say that,” Ellis explained. “This is across the board, across the county, in various, different work environments and agencies and homes.”
Pool testing, such as that done at some area colleges, does not result in everyone in each pool being recorded as a test. Instead, Ellis explained, any follow-up diagnostic tests done in a group of people who constitute in a pool are recorded as tested.
Ellis and Picente said k-12 schools are also proving to not be contributing significant numbers of cases. The county’s larges school district, in Utica, has reported only 11 positives among its students and staff. The Rome City School District has reported one case.
Picente announced changes in county operations in hopes of avoiding disruption to essential government services. Visitors to county facilities will be limited, and county employees will be spread out, many working on alternating days. He said he is writing to city and village mayors asking them to do the same because if multiple localities should be affected by clusters, crucial services could be affected, even snowplowing as winter approaches. He is asking other local governments to consider testing all their employees at least every two weeks.
"We want to be sure our workforce is safe and able to handle the services we are required to provide.
“When roads can’t get plowed, people can’t get to work safely. Emergency vehicles cannot get to people in need safely,” Picente said.
Where once Oneida County and the Mohawk Valley were leading the state in holding down the spread of COVID-19, people may be letting their guard down, Picente said. He said a wedding in Trenton exceeded the limit of 50 people and did not have mask wearing and social distancing. A police officer who attended and who is assigned to the county’s child protective center became positive, which led to case workers and advocates having to quarantine so that the center is now effectively shut down, Picente said.
“That’s what happens when carelessness and letting our guard down occurs,” Picente said.
“Nothing has changed since March. We still have this virus in front of us … You may think that a wedding or your Halloween party doesn’t affect anyone but you and your family. That isn’t true. It affects people in the greatest way.”
Earlier Monday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that portions of Onondaga, Monroe and Erie counties would be classified as yellow zones under the state’s system of targeting so-called microclusters. Yellow is the less restrictive of the three colors, with orange and red being higher.
Yellow designation limits non-essential gatherings to 25 people indoors or outdoors, 50% room capacity in religious gatherings, and limits of four people per table for restaurants, indoors or outdoors.
The Onondaga County yellow zone is the city of Syracuse and much of the northwestern quarter of the county, according to maps of the new upstate zones released Monday.
The Syracuse-based Central New York region, of which Madison County is a part, had a positive test rate of 2.5% over a seven-day rolling average, and its weekly average of new cases each day per 100,000 people was 20.72.
The Mohawk Valley, by contrast, stood at 1.1% and 10.57, still among the lowest in the state. However, a month ago, the region’s positive test rate was 0.4%, and daily new cases per 100,000 was 2.86.
As of Monday afternoon 29 county residents were hospitalized with COVID-19: 23 in the Mohawk Valley Health System hospitals in Utica and New Hartford, and six in hospitals outside the county. Ten were nursing home residents.
In all, 1,413 people were in mandatory quarantine, in addition to those in isolation with current positive cases.
The Health Department announced the following incidents of possible public exposure to someone with a recent COVID-19 positive test and recommends self-monitoring for symptoms for anyone there at the time:
Tops at 9554 Harden Blvd., Camden, afternoon of Oct. 31; self-monitor through Nov. 14.
The Stief Bar, 618 Varick St., Utica, 9:30 p.m. to midnight Oct. 31; self-monitor through Nov. 14.
Hannaford at 808 W. Chestnut St., Rome, 6-6:30 p.m. Nov. 1; self-monitor through Nov. 15.
Lowe’s, 1230 Erie Blvd., Rome, 10-10:15 a.m. Nov. 2; self-monitor through Nov. 16.
Green World Bottle and Can Return Center, 1318 Erie Blvd. W., Rome, 11:30-11:50 a.m. Nov. 3; self-monitor through Nov. 17.
Moe’s Southwest Grill, 1877 Black River Blvd., Rome, 1-1:20 p.m. Nov. 3; self-monitor through Nov. 17.
Aldi at 8432 Seneca Turnpike, New Hartford, 1:45-2 p.m. Nov. 4; self-monitor through Nov. 18.
Tops at 9554 Harden Blvd., Camden, 3:30-4 p.m. Nov. 4; self-monitor through Nov. 18.
Kinney Drugs at 2 Preston St., Camden, 4-4:30 p.m. Nov. 4; self-monitor through Nov. 18.
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November 10, 2020 at 06:30AM
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Oneida County hits new peak in active COVID cases - Rome Sentinel
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