Coachella Valley coronavirus news and info | Saturday, April 18

By
Casey Dolan
-
(?: April Erin Stanton)

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, and thank you for your continued support of Cactus Hugs.

As of 1 pm Friday, Riverside County officials have confirmed:

  • 2,457 people have tested positive for COVID-19.    
  • 69 people are confirmed to have died in the county from the coronavirus.  10 people have died in the last 24 hours.
  • There are currently 216 confirmed cases hospitalized, with 72 of them in the ICU.
  • There have been 544 official recovered cases in the county.

As of 8 am Saturday, San Bernardino County has confirmed 1,096 cases of COVID-19.  There have been 55 deaths in San Bernardino County – of which 8 people were reported dead in the last 24 hours.

As of 9 pm Friday, there have been 29,425 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in California.  There have been 1,057 confirmed deaths in the state.

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

There are also the stories around the world of those giving up so much while trying to keep people safe and alive during the coronavirus:

“They’re death pits” – The New York Times reports on the nation’s nursing homes, where nearly 7,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus.

In a Friday night YouTube video, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said that 71 employees of the department have tested positive for COVID-19.  Bianco said that nine employees have recovered and have returned to work and that most of the infected employees work in corrections, where 107 inmates have tested positive.  Bianco who was ordered by a judge to create a new plan to protect inmates this week, did not discuss the judge’s decision, but did criticize the judicial system’s decision to implement a zero-bail policy for misdemeanor and felony charges. “This was extremely reckless in that it not only encourages criminal behavior, it also limits law enforcement’s ability to keep you safe,” Bianco said.

Latinos are disproportionately dying and losing jobs because of the coronavirus.  For many communities, the coronavirus long ago stopped being merely a health crisis.” We are strong people, but something has to change”

Nurses, postal workers, public works employees, grocery store workers – the Desert Sun reports on the Coachella Valley’s essential workers during the coronavirus.

The state of California will allow drive-up religious services so long as people refrain from physical contact,  remain in their car with the windows up, and all vehicles are parked at least 6 feet apart.

Supervisor Chuck Washington is asking tourists to stay away from Idyllwild for the time begin.  As the supervisor notes, the town has an older population, no hospital, and limited supplies:

 

A Desert Sun reader is angry that a furniture store has reopened during the pandemic.  Another wants golf courses to reopen.

New estimates by researchers at Harvard University suggest that the United States cannot safely reopen unless it conducts more than three times the number of coronavirus tests it is currently administering over the next month.

In South Korea, health officials are trying to solve a mystery: why 163 people who recovered from coronavirus have retested positive.

Music festivals like Coachella and Stagecoach are going to find it nearly impossible to obtain pandemic insurance for the foreseeable future.  An insurance broker for media and music told TMZ, “You can’t buy home insurance when your house is on fire. In other words, good luck getting pandemic insurance now.”

“Even if we did 10 people per show and we have 14 screens, that’s 140 people every two hours. You know, that’s a good day,” the general manager of  Cathedral City’s Mary Pickford Theater talked with KESQ about what things might look like at the facility when things begin to reopen.   “I think it’ll basically be reduced seating and automatic reserved seating all the time. So, you will have to really make sure that you get your tickets ahead of time and that you’re able to, depending on how the rules are, sit your group together, even if that means you’re every other seat or something like that,” he said.

An essential items drive at the Westfield Palm Desert mall continues today through Sunday:

That’s all for this evening. 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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