Ryan McMahon to SU Students: “Hang in there”

By Jake Morel

SYRACUSE, NY – Onondaga county executive Ryan McMahon held a press conference Monday afternoon at the county civic center to give an update on the county’s status with Covid-19. McMahom began the conference by giving county statistics, saying that Onondaga county still has 96 cases in the hospital, which is a drop from early last week. He also said that the county is down 31% on cases since two weeks ago.

At the conference, he showed support for Syracuse University’s mask guidance staying in the red level, which requires students to wear their masks at all times. SU students have been questioning the mask guidance, pointing out that cases have dipped below 20 for almost a week straight. SU officials responded last week by saying that they’ll stay in the red level mask guidance. They also say that they’re basing their guidance on county numbers, not university numbers.

When we asked Executive McMahon about it today, he said “I think Syracuse is probably wise right now, you have congregate settings to continue with their policy that’s worked so effectively up until now.” He then continued to warn about events that caused a spike in cases last year such as halloween and thanksgiving, and finished by saying the university should “hang in there” and giving us a rough estimate of a time that he thinks the university will have a decision to make on changing the guidance level.

He said “I think the university just needs to hang in there, for a little bit here, and let’s see how we get through November, and then if we’re getting through November and we’re still in a good place, in the community and on the campus, then I think certainly the chancellor and the dean have a decision to make.”

Students now have a rough estimate of when they may get to see change, and will possibly even see it before the end of the semester. For now, according to our county executive, it all depends on case numbers.