Home News Coachella Valley coronavirus news and info | Monday, May 4

Coachella Valley coronavirus news and info | Monday, May 4

Casey Dolan
-
0
Coachella Valley coronavirus news and info | Monday, May 4
(?: Delia Nilsen)

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 Sunday, Riverside County officials have confirmed:

  • 4,180 people have tested positive for COVID-19.  16 people have tested positive in the last 24 hours.  
  • 161 people are confirmed to have died in the county from the coronavirus. There were no people reported dead in the last 24 hours.
  • There are currently 211 confirmed cases hospitalized, with 78 of them in the ICU.
  • There have been 1,971 official recovered cases in the county.
  • The county has conducted 53,333 tests.

As of 3 pm Saturday, San Bernardino County has confirmed 2,182 cases of COVID-19.  There have been 97 deaths in San Bernardino County.

As of 8:30 am Monday, there have been 54,971 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in California.  There have been 2,215 confirmed deaths in the state.

https://twitter.com/USCoronaUpdates/status/1257184131215228928

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

Sunday night, President Donald Trump warned the death toll from the coronavirus in the United States could be as high 100,000 people, up from his previous estimates, which have all been inching up over the last five weeks. At a virtual town hall at the Lincoln Memorial shown on News, he said, “We’re going to lose anywhere from 75-, 80- to 100,000 people. That’s a horrible thing. He also said the country should reopen soon, and it can be done safely. “We can have it both ways and reopen,” he insisted.

The New York Times reports that, while Trump is open pushing to reopen the country on Fox News, behind the scenes, his administration is privately projecting a steady rise in the number of cases and deaths from coronavirus over the next several weeks, reaching about 3,000 daily deaths on June 1, nearly double from the current level of about 1,750.

California has not yet seen a steady two-week decline in coronavirus cases. While the weekly number of cases appeared to flatten for several weeks in early April, with 8,000 to 8,500 cases every week, it rose back up from April 19 to 25, with the state recording 11,777 new cases, and in the seven days ending Saturday, 11,041 new cases were recorded.

Several Riverside County supervisors, along with other elected officials and business people will present their case to lift a series of health orders from Dr. Cameron Kaiser, the county’s top health official on Monday. The stay-at-home order is “creating a mental and physical impact on residents, who also are losing their jobs, their businesses and their ability to feed their families,” Riverside’s Mayor Rusty Bailey said in a press release.  The Riverside County Board is Supervisors is expected to vote on lifting the orders on Tuesday. Those looking to contact the board, can find that info here.

Two additional Northern California counties are reopening for business on Monday in defiance of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s stay-at-home orders. Yuba and Sutter counties join Modoc County in going against the order.  Yuba and Sutter counties have 175,000 residents.  Combines, the counties have seen 50 coronavirus infections and three deaths.

A San Clemente restaurant reopened over the weekend, in defiance of California’s stay-at-home order. Crowds could be seen eating and drinking on the patio Sunday afternoon. Owner Jeff Gourley told KTLA reduced indoor capacity by about 40% and placed barstools several feet apart, to allow for social distancing.   The county received multiple complaints after what a clearly packed patio could be seen from the street and health inspectors dispatched to tell the owner that his license could be revoked if he continues to offer dine-in services.

Meanwhile, the beaches in Orange County this weekend were empty:

Embed from Getty Images

As protests to the stay-at-home orders continue around the state and the US, the New York Times takes a look at one of the groups actively participating in many of them and who organized a raucous rally in Sacramento this weekend : The Freedom Angels Foundation, which is best known in California for its opposition to state efforts to mandate vaccinations.

https://twitter.com/CoronavirusUSA0/status/1257045634202419200

The LA Times followed an ER doctor during her shift at UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica.  “People keep referring to us as the front line,” Dr. Lisa Dabby told the Times. “We’re not the front line. Every individual in our country is the front line. All the coronavirus wants to do is spread, and everyone needs to realize they have the power to stop it.”

Federal agencies and experts are warning that a historic wave of mental health problems is approaching due to the coronavirus pandemic: depression, substance abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide. “That’s what is keeping me up at night,” an expert told the Washington Post. “I worry about the people the system just won’t absorb or won’t reach. I worry about the suffering that’s going to go untreated on such a large scale.

Shoppers are being asked to wear masks when they go grocery shopping around the state.  A shopper at a Von’s in Santee thought that meant a KKK hood.  The sheriff’s department is investigating.

On Monday, J. Crew become the first national retailer to file for bankruptcy during the coronavirus pandemic.

Carnival Cruises plans on being back in business in August:

Looking for something to do at home today?  All nine of the Star Wars Skywalker Sage films are now available to stream on Disney Plus.  May the Fourth Be With You.

Finally, Tom Hanks delivered a speech for Wright State seniors over the weekend. The actor, who recently recovered from coronavirus, told the class of 2020, “Congratulations to you chosen ones. I am calling you the chosen ones because you have been chosen in many ways You are the chosen ones because of a fate unimagined when you began your Wright State adventures. You started in the olden times, in a world back before the great pandemic of 2020. You will talk of those earlier years in your lives just that way. ‘Well, that was before the COVID-19.'”  The actor later added, “Part of your lives will forever be identified as ‘before,’ the same way other generations tell time like, ‘that was before the war’ or ‘that was before the internet,’ or ‘that was before Beyoncé.’ The word ‘before’ is going to carry great weight with you.”

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.

© Newspaper WordPress Theme by TagDiv