Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh encouraged Onondaga County residents Friday to take social distancing measures seriously amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The novel coronavirus causes COVID-19, a respiratory disease that has infected at least 597,000 people and killed at least 27,000 worldwide. The number of confirmed cases in Onondaga County rose to 123 on Friday, up from 111 on Thursday.

Many people in the community have followed social distancing guidelines when outside, but some have not, Walsh said. Although the Syracuse Police Department has more important things to do than enforce public health orders, they’re prepared to do so, he said. 

“People’s lives are at sake and we need to take that very seriously,” Walsh said. 

There are currently 18 patients with COVID-19  hospitalized in the county, and six are in critical condition, County Executive Ryan McMahon said during the briefing. A quarter of the county’s positive cases involve people over the age of 60, he said. 

“The safest place is for you to be at home,” McMahon said. “You can go to the grocery store, you can go to essential businesses, there’s nothing wrong with that, but you are safest at home, your family is safest at home.”