Coachella Valley coronavirus news and info | Monday, August 3

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

As of 3 pm Monday, Riverside County officials have confirmed:

  • 38,131 people have officially tested positive for COVID-19.  382 people have been reported positive since Friday.
  • 737 people are confirmed to have died in the county from the coronavirus. The county reported 42 new deaths in the last 24 hours.

Here’s the latest from the Coachella Valley:

As of 4 pm Monday, San Bernardino County has confirmed:

  • 33,432 people have officially tested positive for COVID-19.
  • 418 people are confirmed to have died in the county from the coronavirus.

As of 4 pm Monday, the State of California has confirmed:

        • 516,848  people have official tested positive for COVID-19.
        • 9,441 people are confirmed to have died in the state of CA from the coronavirus.

 

Well, here we are…in August.  When this thing started in March, most of us were led to believe that, while things certainly wouldn’t be back to normal, the situation would be at least a bit better by now.  It’s not.  Far from. There were 42 reported deaths in the county today.  Meanwhile, many around Southern California are finding it takes weeks to get testing results, nothing is getting done to extend unemployment benefits, the President keep pushing a drug that has shown to do more harm than good while trying to tear down the post office  – oh, and now we have giant fucking fires raging now too.  Anyway, Happy Monday.  Wear a mask. Let’s do the updates.

As mentioned above, smoke can cause a range of health issues. There’s already a lot going on these days, so, please be careful as the smoke from the Apple Fire blows into town:

The Desert Sun did some digging in and found that The Fourth of July holiday helped the coronavirus continue its spread, but not due to large fireworks shows and huge crowds, as most events were wisely cancelled.  Instead, contact tracing seems to be showing that with no events and with bars closed,  much of the disease’s transmission has occurred at home or at small get-togethers, among people who already know each other.

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Monday that coronavirus case numbers and hospitalizations have decreased a bit over the past week. The governor stated that the average number of daily positive cases decreased 21% from last week and the 14-day positivity rate was down slightly from 7.5% to 7%. “Encouraging signs, but one week does not make the kind of trend that gives us confidence to generate headlines,” the governor said.

A new study found children under 5 had up to 100-fold more COVID-19 particles than adults. Those 5 to 17 had similar amounts to adults. The study did not focus on how infectious kids were, but a previous study found that students between the ages of 10 and 18 can spread the virus as easily as adults.

Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Monday that the United States will need to bring its daily coronavirus case count down to 10,000 by September to gain some level of control over the pandemic before fall.  Currently, the US is seeing 50,000 to 60,000 cases a day. “If we don’t get them down, then we’re going to have a really bad situation in the fall,” Fauci said.

“Despite ample warning, the U.S. squandered every possible opportunity to control the coronavirus. And despite its considerable advantages—immense resources, biomedical might, scientific expertise—it floundered.” The Atlantic is out with a must-read piece about how we got here: How the Pandemic Defeated America.

While the Trump Administration keeps pushing to open schools and more sectors , they are also initiating random coronavirus tests to White House employees due to fear of an outbreak in the White House.  As always, watch what they do, not what they say.

Temps may be scorching in the desert, but that’s not stopping some restaurants from expanding their outdoor dining.  Both Fleming’s and Yardhouse have added more tables outside in the plaza at the River at Rancho Mirage:

I don’t know exactly what is spraying out of this thing, but, if it works, can I grab one for my front door at Lowe’s?

Speaking of sports:

Finally…

Stay cool.  Stay safe.  Wear a mask.

Thank you for your continued support of Cactus Hugs.

These are stressful times for all of us. Coping with stress will make you, the people you care about, and our desert community stronger. This link has some resources to help with coping and also numbers to call or text if you, or someone you know, feels overwhelmed.

Please, take care of yourself and each other. You are important. You are valued. You are loved. ??

Anything we missed? Let us know about it.

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