Coachella Valley coronavirus news and info | Saturday, April 25

By
Casey Dolan
-
(?: Alex Ramirez)

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 Friday, Riverside County officials have confirmed:

  • 3,315 people have tested positive for COVID-19.    
  • 112 people are confirmed to have died in the county from the coronavirus.
  • There are currently 222 confirmed cases hospitalized, with 83 of them in the ICU.
  • There have been 957 official recovered cases in the county.

As of 2 pm Friday, San Bernardino County has confirmed 1,666 cases of COVID-19.  There have been 80 deaths in San Bernardino County.

As of 2:15 pm Friday, there have been 41,338 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in California.  There have been 1,618 confirmed deaths in the state.

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

A Riverside County Sheriff’s Department employee who has been battling COVID-19, was released from Loma Linda University Medical Center in Murrieta Friday.  Members of the department and fire department were there to cheer them on.  The Sheriff’s Department posted a drone video of the moment on Facebook (you can view it here).

Early in the outbreak, the Coachella Valley was the county COVID-19 hot spot. In recent weeks, the number of confirmed cases has been growing more slowly there than other regions of the county. Meanwhile, in the past two weeks, infection rates have been increasing fastest in the mid-county region, which includes the San Jacinto Valley and San Gorgonio Pass.  The Press Enterprise looks at how the coronavirus has spread in Riverside County.

The World Health Organization is warning that there is no evidence that a person who has recovered from COVID-19 will be immune from catching it again:

Meanwhile, at the White House:

Nearly 700 food baskets were given out to families at Galilee Center’s food distribution on Thursday. Many went home empty handed as the number of families looking for assistance was triple that number.  Information on how to volunteer or donate to the Galilee Center can be found here.

We distributed 700 food baskets again yesterday. With our amazing staff and volunteers, we were able to serve everyone…

Posted by Galilee Center on Friday, April 24, 2020

A Wells Fargo branch in the city of Riverside has closed after at least one employee tested positive for coronavirus.  The company did not disclose how many employees tested positive, but hopes to reopen the location soon.

A woman was all set to pick up her son from the Riverside County Jail system so he could spend the last six months of his term on house arrest.  That morning, she received a call that he had tested positive for coronavirus.  Officials gave her the option that he could stay put or she could still pick him up. “Hell no, the jail is not gonna bury another one of my sons,” she told the Desert Sun.

“The virus doesn’t care if it’s a jail, a school or a mall,” a medical expert makes the case as to why everyone should care about coronavirus spread in prison and jail to the Press Enterprise. “We can’t turn our back on the (nation’s) 500,000 or so correctional officers. To do so just ignores everybody’s self interest. … We are actually spreading the virus back to their families. Part of our mistake is to think that these places, jails and prisons, aren’t part of the community.”

A Desert Regional doctor is urging those who have recovered from coronavirus to donate plasma. “If we can take plasma from a patient who has now survived and recovered from the infection, and put it in somebody who is actually still sick and in the hospital with the coronavirus, we expect those antibodies will work quicker and kill the virus so the patient can feel better soon,”  Dr. Xolani Mdluli, who specializes in infectious diseases at Desert Regional, told the Desert Sun.

A report from UC Riverside predicts a strong surge in the economy during the 2nd half of 2020 – with two wildcards possibly halting a bounce back: a second wave of coronavirus and a change in customer behavior.  The report questions, “Will consumers stop going to ballgames and music festivals? Will they be too afraid to go to restaurants? “We can’t really know. But it is worth noting that for hundreds of years people have faced pandemics that were far deadlier and more frightening than this one because they didn’t have the science or the medical responses we have today.”

The City of Riverside has created a “Tunnel of Hope” on Mission Inn Avenue and the 91 Freeway underpass to honor healthcare and frontline workers:

CNN and Sesame Street teamed up for a coronavirus special for children on Saturday morning. If you missed it, clips for the program can be viewed here.

Indio Police are showing their support for the class of 2020:

Shaq reminds you to check on your neighbors during the coronavirus:

StageCouch continues today:

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.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR