SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC NEWS) – Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon announced plans to expand social distancing orders at a press conference on Sunday, April 5. McMahon is asking for residents born on even years to go out for needed supplies on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Whereas, residents born on odd years can go out on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Sundays will rotate back and forth on a weekly basis.
McMahon made it clear that he doesn’t have the executive power to mandate people to stay in their home. So, he is asking Onondaga County residents to voluntarily stay indoors on their assigned days. The assigned voluntary shelter schedule will last at least two weeks. At the moment, it is scheduled to end on April 21st.
This is something that, to this point, resident Mary Ann Durantini says hasn’t occurred.
“People are still doing stuff they shouldn’t and disregarding the warnings and thinking it doesn’t pertain to them,” Durantini said.
McMahon urged residents to stay home if they feel sick even if they are essential workers. He emphasized that the county needs to buy into this voluntary shelter. “We need you more than we’ve ever needed you to buy in, and two weeks from now if we can do this, if we can really dive into this, the data is going to change, and we’re going to be on the other end of this and looking at what our recovery looks like but we need you to get there,” McMahon said.
Durantini agrees with this sentiment. “You know its this is one of those things its mind blowing. But, the sooner everyone does their part the faster it’ll end,” she said.
New York continues to have the highest number of cases of any state in the country with over 138,800 confirmed cases as of April 8th.
