Coachella Valley coronavirus news and info | Tuesday, April 28

By
Casey Dolan
-
(?: Christina Davis)

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 Monday, Riverside County officials have confirmed:

  • 3,643 people have tested positive for COVID-19.  80 people have tested positive in the last 24 hours.  
  • 141 people are confirmed to have died in the county from the coronavirus. 23 new deaths were reported on Monday, with some of those occurring between April 21 through Monday, as the county says they have been catching up on records.
  • There are currently 215 confirmed cases hospitalized, with 75 of them in the ICU.
  • There have been 1,245 official recovered cases in the county.

As of 8 pm Monday, San Bernardino County has confirmed 1,772 cases of COVID-19.  There have been 82 deaths in San Bernardino County.

As of 10 pm Monday, there have been 45,199 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in California.  There have been 1,786 confirmed deaths in the state.  66 people were reported dead from coronavirus in the state on Monday.

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

More than 650 patients and employees at nursing homes and assisted living facilities have tested positive for coronaviris in Riverside County.  As the Press Enterprise notes, most of the cases – 414 – are among 40 skilled nursing facilities spread across the county.

A woman told KESQ of her concerns about a Palm Desert nursing facility where her parents are staying, saying their staff didn’t take basic coronavirus prevention measures. The woman’s mother tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday.

A new study published on Tuesday found that cancer patients — especially those with blood or lung malignancies, or tumors that have spread throughout the body — have a higher risk of death or other severe complications from COVID-19 compared with those without cancer.

Two Bakersfield doctors held a press conference this week to release results from 5,213 COVID-19 tests they had conducted at their centers and testing site. The men claimed the results showed that the virus was not any more dangerous than the flu. The video was shared millions of times and the doctors were booked as guests on Fox News primetime shows. Public health experts were quick to debunk the doctors’ findings as misguided and riddled with statistical errors  – with one likening their extrapolations to “estimating the average height of Americans from the players on an NBA court.”

A pug in North Carolina has tested positive for COVID-19 in what may be the first instance the virus has been detected in a dog in the United States.

A 31-year-old man from India who crossed the border illegally near Calexico has tested positive for coronavirus. Border patrol agents quarantined the man after he displayed flu-like symptoms during an initial medical screening and then tested him for the virus. Three Mexican nationals, who were traveling with the man were expelled back to Mexico.

For those unfamiliar with how a test for COVID-19 works:

The La Quinta City Council on Monday voted unanimously in a closed-door meeting to lift restrictions on tennis and pickleball in the city, including doubles play.  The city also plans to send a letter to state and county officials requesting a plan to reopen the economy.  The city says that other Coachella Valley cities can join in and also sign the letter.  La Quinta’s announcement of a letter to the governor comes after six northwestern counties in the state sent the governor a request to lift the stay-at-home orders in their counties on Monday.

On Monday, Gov. Newsom said the state is “a few weeks away, not months away” from making “meaningful changes” in the stay-at-home order. The Governor did not make clear what “meaningful” meant.  It’s expected that Newsom will outline what it would take to ease his March stay-at-home order on Tuesday, according to AP.

Several publicly traded companies getting pressure from the Trump Administration to return millions of dollars in loans received from a small-business rescue program tell the Washington Post they have absolutely no plans on returning the money.

USC also says that it is keeping $20 million in emergency federal grants. The university has a $5.7 billion endowment.

Agua Caliente Casino Rancho Mirage announced the creation of the Agua Clean Team, as the facility prepares to welcome back customers:

The Desert Sun reports that 6,000 students in the Coachella Valley Unified School District aren’t accessing the meals they’re entitled to.  “It’s difficult for people like us, because sometimes we can’t come and pick up food for them because we have to go to work,” a mother of 3, who works in agriculture, told the newspaper.

The year-to-date crime rate in the city of San Bernardino dropped almost 10.4% in March from the same period in 2019, with property crimes down nearly 15%, the city said on Monday.

Indio firefighters helped a 3-year-old celebrate their birthday:

Somebody left a surprise in the parking lot of an Eisenhower Health building:

Thinking about some takeout?  Here are some options in the Coachella Valley:

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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