Onondaga County will implement mitigation strategies if the county's COVID-19 case load hits a 10-day average of 70 case per 100,000 people tested, County Executive Ryan McMahon said Friday.

The county is currently at 46.8 per 100,000 as a 10-day average, taking into account 404 cases related to Thanksgiving celebrations, McMahon said.

McMahon said at the 70-case mark, the county would enter a first phase of mitigation, which would focus on identifying where the coronavirus is in the community. He did not elaborate on how that would be done or other aspects of a first phase.

"If we can identify, we can starve," McMahon said of the virus.

If hospitalizations, currently at 133 in the county, hit another benchmark, then McMahon said the county would implement other mitigation measures to protect vulnerable populations.

"There won't be lock downs, there won't be business limitations that would cripple our economic recovery," he said.

The county would look at mask mandates at locations that are essential for vulnerable populations.

"Our goal with any mitigation is one, to preserve the hospital beds in our community," McMahon said, "two, to protect daily living activities of our vulnerable."

To prevent hitting the 70 cases per 100,000 mark, McMahon urged people who feel sick to get a COVID-19 test and stay home until they do, adding the county will look to increase antigen rapid testing.

McMahon also reiterated that the county's hospitals were still "doing OK" despite Crouse, Upstate University Hospital and Community General falling on the state's list of hospitals with less than 10% of hospital beds remaining. The state provided an updated list Friday afternoon.

An executive order signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul went into effect today that would pause elective surgeries scheduled for Dec. 9 or after if a hospital remained below the 10% capacity benchmark on Monday.

"We're concerned about the guidance about elective surgeries being shut down at a certain point," McMahon said.

The data given to the state by the hospitals, McMahon said as he pushed back against the state-released data, reflects a "baseline" of capacity and doesn't account for a facility's ability to increase staffing and thus, capacity.

The county executive advocated for hospitals to work together to balance out the patient load. St. Joseph's is the only Onondaga County hospital not on the state's watchlist.

McMahon expressed optimism that the county's 10-day average would decrease in the coming weeks as the "community responds" following the Thanksgiving surge, but added the county likely will see high case counts get reported out over the weekend.

This all comes against the backdrop of five cases of the omicron variant being in New York state. While those cases were limited to New York City and Long Island, McMahon said the variant will likely be in the county soon, but that isn't cause for panic.

"We don't know enough about it. It's a new variant," McMahon said. "If it is more contagious than delta, unvaccinated folks, really some unvaccinated folks who have existing conditions, really need to reassess their decisions."

One Onondaga County man in his 40s died of COVID-19 yesterday, McMahon said. Thirty people remain in the ICU, and 78% of those people are unvaccinated, McMahon said.