Coachella Valley coronavirus news and info | Monday, August 24

By
Casey Dolan
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Cactus Hugs has been tracking local stories about the coronavirus.   For a rundown of all of our updates, click here. Stay safe, stay at a good social distance. Thank you for your continued support of Cactus Hugs. For ways to keep this website going (and free!), click here.

As of 3 pm Monday, Riverside County officials have confirmed:

  • 50,744 people have officially tested positive for COVID-19.  1,262 people have been reported positive since Friday.
  • 972 people are confirmed to have died in the county from the coronavirus. The county reported 55 new deaths since Friday.

Here’s the latest from the Coachella Valley:

As of 4 pm Monday, San Bernardino County has confirmed:

  • 45,246 people have officially tested positive for COVID-19.
  • 692 people are confirmed to have died in the county from the coronavirus.

As of 4 pm Monday, the State of California has confirmed:

        • 673,678 people have official tested positive for COVID-19.
        • 12,198 people are confirmed to have died in the state of CA from the coronavirus.

When might Riverside and San Bernardino counties get off the state’s COVID-19 watchlist?  The Press Enterprise takes a look and, well, there’s still a a way to go.  While hospitalizations in each county have dipped a bit over the last couple of weeks, transmission of the virus is still high.  State measures say that a county should see no more than 100 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 14 days. As of Monday, Riverside County’s rate was 165.3 per 100,000 and San Bernardino County’s rate was 200.3 per 100,000.

A 33-year-old man in Hong Kong has been diagnosed with coronavirus more than four months after recovering from a first episode of the disease.  The case suggests that immunity to the virus can be short-lived and raises questions about vaccines against the virus.

The coronavirus can survive for up to three weeks on frozen meat and fish, according to a new study that has not yet been peer reviewed.  Those behind the study warn about the danger of contaminated food which could be shipped around the world in sparking new outbreaks of the disease.

A woman who made headlines after she was fired from her job of building an maintaining Florida’s coronavirus website now has a new project, a site tracking coronavirus at schools and colleges.  The site can be seen here.

Californians on unemployment may eventually receive an extra $300 per week under an agreement reached between the state and the federal government on Friday. It’s unclear how long it will last and just when it might begin.  Those on unemployment had been receiving double that amount through July.  For those trying to call the unemployment office with questions, good luck.  It appears 60% of calls these days are going unanswered.

Palm Springs will still see a parade this November as part of Pride, but it’s going to be a bit different. The CEO of Greater Palm Springs Pride told the Desert Sun that the plan is to hold a socially-distanced car caravan parade on Nov. 7. “The car caravan is going to be a very unique Pride parade for Palm Springs,” he told the paper. “We certainly anticipate it’s going to be the largest caravan that we’ve ever seen in Palm Springs.”

A Zoom outage affected businesses and schools on Monday.  Local districts moved fast, switching from the online conferencing system to Google Meets.

Taco Bell is launching a new kind of restaurant to better serve during the pandemic.  Taco Bell Go Mobile will have two drive thrus, with one acting as a mobile order pickup.  The restaurants will also be able to track your location to know when to have your food ready.

Finally…

Stay cool.  Stay safe.  Wear a mask.

Thank you for your continued support of Cactus Hugs.

Anything we missed? Let us know about it.

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