Riverside COVID Infections, Hospitalizations Increase Countywide

RIVERSIDE, CA — The aggregate number of COVID-19 infections recorded in Riverside County since the public health emergency began in early March is 78,442, with 1,400 deaths stemming from related complications, according to the Riverside University Health System.

County health officials do not release updated statistics on weekends. But on Friday, the number of coronavirus cases in Riverside County increased by 433, with four new deaths and a slight elevation in virus-related hospitalizations and deaths.

The number of COVID-positive hospitalizations was at 375 on Friday, compared to 362 on Thursday, including 99 intensive care unit patients, 14 more than the day before, RUHS figures showed.

County Emergency Management Director Bruce Barton said during Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting that the rise in COVID-19 caseloads has not overwhelmed area hospitals, which continue to operate with excess bed capacity.

"The good news is, there has been a lot of surge planning," Barton said. "This is familiar territory for the hospitals. They have processes and procedures in place."

He said individuals with a critical medical need of any kind should not hesitate to visit medical facilities, because they "are still safe" thanks to triaging that separates potentially contagious people from those who aren't.

The county's peak in hospitalizations occurred in mid-July, when nearly 600 COVID-positive patients were under general or intensive care.

The number of known active virus cases countywide was at 11,429 on Friday, an increase of 243 compared to Thursday. The active count is derived by subtracting deaths and recoveries from the current total -- 78,442 -- according to the county Executive Office. The number of verified patient recoveries is 65,613.

Department of Public Health Director Kim Saruwatari said Tuesday the county now has a state-adjusted case rate of 22.4 per 100,000 residents and an overall state-calculated positivity rate of 8.9%, up from 6.7% two weeks ago.

The county's testing level is at 282.1 per 100,000. The revised state threshold for large counties is 272 per 100,000, meaning that, if only by one metric, the county has met requirements for a tier adjustment.

Last month, the California Department of Public Health reclassified the county in the "purple" tier, the most restrictive under Gov. Gavin Newsom's Blueprint for a Safer Economy regulatory framework. For roughly a month, the county had been in the slightly less stringent "red" tier. Some entities that had reopened were required to close again, including gyms, restaurants, movie theaters and churches.

Earlier this week, Newsom placed 28 counties in the purple tier, predicated on a 50% statewide upswing in coronavirus cases, which the governor said was "the fastest increase in cases we have seen yet."

He went a step farther on Thursday, issuing a revised executive order mandating a nightly curfew, from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., starting Saturday, as part of a COVID-19 mitigation strategy that has already been cast into doubt, with many law enforcement agencies declaring no intention of enforcing it.

Sen. Melissa Melendez, R-Lake Elsinore, called Newsom's order unscientific and "nothing more than a penalty box move for us commonsense Californians, who are calling him out for his posh, anti-health guidelines lifestyle," a reference to the governor attending a dinner party at the exclusive French Laundry restaurant in Napa Valley, where he appeared to flout the restrictions he has set for Californians.

The governor acknowledged in a news briefing that "I made a bad mistake" for not adhering to protocols.

—City News Service