Onondaga County will receive 19,000 at-home COVID-19 testing kits to distribute to families to support a test-to-stay program for kids in school by next week, according to Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon.
The at-home testing launch is an effort to keep kids in their classrooms, even when exposed to COVID-19, McMahon said Thursday, as the winter months progress and the omicron variant concerns mount.
The kits will only be available to families of school children as of now, although McMahon said the county is working with a supplier and the state to provide home tests to the general public in the future, much like a recent effort in Monroe County.
McMahon also announced that the county will be opening asymptomatic rapid testing sites throughout the county for residents to get tested before the holidays on the following schedule:
- Monday-Thursday: Oncenter
- Tueday: Fabius Community Center
- Wednesday: Cicero American Legion
You can visit the Onondaga County health website for a time slot.
McMahon reiterated the importance of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine and booster shot, saying omicron will certainly bring a rise in cases to the community, and while preliminary data suggests it may be milder, he said, the vaccine remains to be the best line of defense against hospitalizations.
“What’s likely to come with omicron, we need to brace ourselves for higher numbers going forward with the goal being that we don’t have more people going into the hospital. From a community standpoint, we need to brace ourselves for higher case numbers while maintaining our ability to treat those that are sick and hospitalized,” said McMahon.
No further cases of the omicron variant have been reported in the county since last week, McMahon said. The county reported two more hospital patients have died of COVID-19, one a man in his 70s and the other a man in his 90s. Both had underlying health conditions, McMahon said.
