Coachella Valley coronavirus news and info | Monday, April 27

By
Casey Dolan
-
(?: Xan Abyss)

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 1 pm Sunday, Riverside County officials have confirmed:

  • 3,563 people have tested positive for COVID-19.  154 people have tested positive in the last 24 hours.  
  • 118 people are confirmed to have died in the county from the coronavirus. 1 person has died in the last 24 hours
  • There are currently 218 confirmed cases hospitalized, with 81 of them in the ICU.
  • There have been 1,207 official recovered cases in the county.

As of 8 pm Sunday, San Bernardino County has confirmed 1,751 cases of COVID-19.  There have been 82 deaths in San Bernardino County.

As of 9:35 pm Sunday, there have been 43,703 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in California.  There have been 1,720 confirmed deaths in the state.

The numbers are increasing everyday.  They are not just numbers.  They are people.  The individual stories are heartbreaking:

Deaths in the United States soared in the early weeks of the coronavirus epidemic – with the United States recording an estimated 15,400 excess deaths, nearly two times as many as were publicly attributed to COVID-19 at the time, according to an analysis of federal data conducted for The Washington Post by a research team led by the Yale School of Public Health. The excess deaths — the number beyond what would normally be expected for that time of year — occurred during March and through April 4, a time when 8,128 coronavirus deaths were reported.

A new study shows that the coronavirus appears to linger in the air in crowded spaces or rooms that lack ventilation.  At two hospitals in Wuhan, China, researchers found bits of the virus’s genetic material floating in the air of hospital toilets, an indoor space housing large crowds, and rooms where medical staff take off protective gear. The study, published Monday in the journal Nature Research, didn’t seek to establish whether the airborne particles could cause infections

Both Eisenhower Health and Desert Regional Medical Center have issued furloughs to non-essential employees, including nurses.  An Eisenhower Health spokeswoman told the Desert Sun that the staffing adjustments a “standard practice” for the hospital, which is projecting a $100 million shortfall in revenue from March through June.

While many local small businesses struggle to get funding from the federal government, the LA Lakers have announced they received millions, but are giving it back.  As ESPN notes,” The Lakers’ value was estimated to be more than $4 billion prior to the virus outbreak. They have the league’s most lucrative local broadcast deal, which generates more than $150 million in annual revenue. In addition to the Buss family, which presides as the controlling owners, the franchise has three billionaire minority partners — Philip Anschutz, Patrick Soon-Shiong and Ed Roski Jr.”:

For the third day in a row, there will be no White House coronavirus press briefing:

Protests to the stay-at-home order were held around the state over the weekend in places like Bakersfield, Sand Diego and Palm Springs (more on that below).  A recent poll shows that Californians overwhelmingly support the state’s health order: 75% want the order to continue as long as it’s needed, according to a California Health Care Foundation/Ipsos survey. Only 11% wanted to stop the stay-at-home order, while 13% had no opinion.

There was a “reopen” Palm Springs protest held Sunday evening, with a small group of people gathering without much regard to social distancing in downtown Palm Springs.  As the Desert Sun reports, they held signs with messages including, “SM BIZ MATTERS,” “No Mandatory Vaccines,” “Stop the fear” and “My constitutional rights are essential”.  One protestor told KESQ, “They are killing people not by the virus but by taking away their lives.”

Photos from Sunday evening: Opponents of stay-at-home order protest in Palm Springs. https://bit.ly/2SahUlD

Posted by Desert Sun on Sunday, April 26, 2020

Across the street, a small number of people wore scrubs and held signs reading things like “Stay home” and “Humanize me”.  “We’ll stay at home until the governor says it’s okay when the numbers go down,” a counter-protestor told KESQ.

Support for voting by mail this fall is growing, with 39% now in favor of it.  The number is up from only 19% who supported it in 2018. A larger number, 48%, favor voting by mail if the coronavirus outbreak is still happening in November:

SoCal beaches were very crowded over the weekend.  “I think you have better chances of winning the lottery or getting hit by a car than getting coronavirus,” a 31-year-old beachgoer told the LA Times.  Health experts disagree.

When the stores were out of toilet paper, people took to using other items to take care of business and then flushed them down the drain – which the Desert Sun reports could lead to some major issues in the not-too-distant future.

The Sikh community in the city of Riverside has been serving over 1,000 meals a day to health care professionals and those in need from a drive-through set up outside the Riverside Sikh Temple. In addition, they have been sending meals to nursing homes and hospitals. “We have seen more people every day, people that lost their jobs and wages and can’t afford a hot meal for themselves and their families,”  Gurpreet Singh, COVID-19 coordinator at United Sikh Mission, told the LA Times.

Over the weekend, police in the city showed their appreciation for their efforts:

McDonald’s recently donated more than 10,000 pounds of beef to Feeding America Riverside | San Bernardino.  According to the fast food chain, the donation of 10,623 pounds of beef is enough to feed more than 2,500 households in the area.

Axios looked at how Google searches have changed over the last few months from “what is coronavirus” in January to “how to make a face mask with fabric” – which is the most search coronavirus topic on Google on a single day (April 8).

Concerned that your neighbors aren’t following the stay-at-home orders?  Perhaps you should try this?

That’s all for this morning. Stay safe. Stay smart. Stay home.

Thank you for your continued support of Cactus Hugs.

Important information:

Congressman Raul Ruiz has posted a list of local resources and information.

The Washington Post offers plenty of ways that you can help during the coronavirus pandemic.

If you see someone price gouging, there is now a number for that.

The New York Times has an interactive map where you can track every coronavirus case in the United States.

The Washington Post is out with a guide to what you should know about the coronavirus.

Here is a memo by the Department of Homeland security identifying critical infrastructure workers.

The United Way of the Desert has assembled a nice list of information and resources available during the coronavirus here.

These are scary and anxious times.  Be safe and kind to each other out there and, please, remember to wash your hands.

Anything we missed? Let us know about it.

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