Coachella Valley coronavirus news and info | Saturday evening, May 9

By
Casey Dolan
-
(?: Sharon Calcagno)

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.

Note: This will be the last update until Monday morning. Have a very Happy Mother’s Day!

Thank you for your continued support of Cactus Hugs. For ways to keep this website going (and free!), click here.

As of 4 pm Saturday, Riverside County officials have confirmed:

  • 4,817 people have officially tested positive for COVID-19. 175 people were reported positive in the last 24 hours.  
  • 204 people are confirmed to have died in the county from the coronavirus. There were zero people reported dead in the last 24 hours.
  • There are currently 188 confirmed cases hospitalized, with 77 of them in the ICU.
  • There have been 2,616 official recovered cases in the county.
  • The county has conducted 69,250 tests.

As of 4 pm Saturday, San Bernardino County has confirmed 2,902 cases of COVID-19.  There have been 114 deaths in San Bernardino County.

As of 4 pm Saturday, there have been 66,164 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in California.  There have been 2,687 confirmed deaths in the state.

There is a lot of focus on the daily numbers, but as the Press Enterprise explains, the daily update is not the complete picture of what is happening.  Coronavirus deaths are announced only after the county’s health department learns of it, and announces it as part of that day’s tally.  It then becomes its “report date.” But, most of those people didn’t get sick or die in the previous 24 hours – it just took few days for that information to get to the counties.  As the newspaper notes, testing results can take even longer.

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

A day after the Riverside County Board of Supervisors voted to rescind its own health officer’s orders, including one to wear a mask when going out, local elected officials spoke with the Desert Sun about the move. “It sounds to me like it’s passing the buck to the governor,” Indian Wells Mayor Ty Peabody said. “And going in the face of [Dr. Cameron] Kaiser, I have a problem with that too. If Kaiser said you should continue to wear a mask, you should continue to distance yourself, why would you override him?”  Meanwhile La Quinta’s Mayor, Linda Evans, told the newspaper she thinks wearing a mask in the right situation is “courtesy and an appropriate thing to do.”  She added, “I commend the board on the deliberation they did.  I think that there is part of me that supported the discussion of defying the governor.”

Dr. Les Zendle, one of the elected directors for Desert Healthcare District and Foundation, spoke with KESQ about the county’s decision to rescind the mask order. “I was very disappointed that the supervisors decided to overturn the county health officer’s order to wear masks in public especially when social distancing can’t be accomplished um we know that the recommendation from everybody is that face masks are worn not to protect the wearer from everybody else but to protect everybody else from the wearer in case the wearer is infected but asymptomatic,” he said.

A reminder: The primary benefit of covering your nose and mouth is that you protect others from whatever you are carrying around.  This post from NPR explains this and other mask-related questions.

With the county’s leadership having basically throwing their hands up and given up on their responsibility to show leadership and govern during the pandemic, many residents are now confused as to what, exactly, are the rules and guidelines around the Coachella Valley.  The Desert Sun has a roundup of measures from each valley city.

The Desert Sun is tracking coronavirus data.  They found that five Southern California counties account for 71% of all California COVID-19 cases and 80% of hospitalizations.  While Los Angeles County has 30,357 cases, Riverside County has the second highest number of cases in the state, with 4,672 cases. San Bernardino is fifth, behind San Diego and Orange County, with 2,631 cases.

The Washington Post reports on the past week at the White House: “In a week when the novel coronavirus ravaged new communities across the country and the number of dead soared past 78,000, President Trump and his advisers shifted from hour-by-hour crisis management to what they characterize as a long-term strategy aimed at reviving the decimated economy and preparing for additional outbreaks this fall. But in doing so, the administration is effectively bowing to — and asking Americans to accept — a devastating proposition: that a steady, daily accumulation of lonely deaths is the grim cost of reopening the nation.”

The Director of the CDC will self-quarantine for 14 days after being exposed to someone at the White House with coronavirus:

Dr. Anthony Fauci will also begin a “modified quarantine” (he will stay at home and telework, wearing a mask continually, for 14 days) after he had contact with a White House employee with coronavirus:

Elon Musk ranted on Twitter that his company is going to file a lawsuit against the county where its factory resides and move its future programs to someplace else that doesn’t care as much about worker safety.  Earlier in the week, the county shot down a proposal from Tesla to reopen yesterday:

Pechanga Casino in Temecula is eyeing June 1st as a reopening date. The casino says it plans to reduce the amount of slot machines and positions at table games. The facility alos says it will not fill restaurants to capacity to allow for distancing for guests (it didn’t mention anything about the buffet opening or staying closed).   Employees will be required to wear masks and “guests will also very likely be required to wear face coverings,” as well.  Guests will have “touchless and non-invasive temperature checks” at the entrance.  The casino will also continue measures put in place before the facility’s closure, such as more hand sanitizing stations and more frequent cleaning of high-touch areas would be in place.

We are incredibly excited to announce that our target reopening time frame has been set for June 1, 2020! Our promise…

Posted by Pechanga Resort Casino on Saturday, May 9, 2020

Live Nation plans to resume concerts over the next six months, but things will be a little different, the company’s CEO told investors this week.  Concerts will be “starting slow and small,”  with fan-less or reduced-capacity shows.  Outdoor concerts might also be staged with some fans but where “there’s enough room to be safe.” Live Nation might also roll out drive-in concerts, similar to what have already been staged in Germany and Denmark, and has a goal of going “full scale” again in 2021.

Restaurant servers with face shields, sidewalks expanded into the street, social distancing markers at stores…Gulf News showcases photographs of how the world is adjusting the social distancing.

And finally, this is happened yesterday in Eastvale (watch with the sound on and you might want to have some tissues ready)…

That’s all for this evening. Stay safe. Stay smart. Stay home.  And be sure to tell your mom how much you love her!!!  

See you Monday.

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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