Coachella Valley coronavirus news and info | Thursday, August 20

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 Thursday, Riverside County officials have confirmed:

  • 48,956 people have officially tested positive for COVID-19.  326 people have been reported positive in the last 24 hours..
  • 922 people are confirmed to have died in the county from the coronavirus. The county reported 5 new deaths in the last 24 hours

Here’s the latest from the Coachella Valley:

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

  • 43,469 people have officially tested positive for COVID-19.
  • 625 people are confirmed to have died in the county from the coronavirus.

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

        • 650,262 people have official tested positive for COVID-19.
        • 11,738 people are confirmed to have died in the state of CA from the coronavirus.


There has been a lot of talk (and hope) about the quick discovery of a vaccine. Currently, the US government is pouring billions of dollars into three vaccine candidates from three companies  Moderna, Pfizer and Novavax.  But some warn that while there may be vaccines available beginning as early as next year, they may only be partially protective against the virus:

Online classes have begun for students all across the Coachella Valley, but for some, just getting logged in has been an issue. “We needed hot spots, but unfortunately we weren’t given any, because they ran out of hot spots,” a parent told NBC Palm Springs.  Officials told the TV station they are aware of the issue and are trying to address it by ordering more hot spots for students.  “We were able to pass out three-thousand, we’ve ordered 1,500 more for those families that still need some type of connectivity,” the Assistant Superintendent at CVUSD said.

Alianza Coachella Valley, a local non-profit organization, has received an additional $500,000 from the California Immigrants Resilience Fund. The fund is a public-private partnership with the State of California and provides financial help for undocumented Californians impacted by the pandemic. In order to be eligible for assistance, a person must live in the Coachella Valley, face financial hardship related to coronavirus, and be excluded from state or federal relief programs because of immigration status. Those looking to apply can text “Apoyo” to 474747 to begin the application process.

This thing seeps into every part of your life. Take making my bed, something I’ve done every day since I was a little kid, learning the daily discipline from my father, the colonel. For more than a half century, the bed was made every day, no matter how great or awful I felt, the bed was neat. The virus took out that discipline, like so many other things on daily routines. I hate to shave anyway, but with everything so painful and challenging, there went shaving for six days until I finally relented and did it hurt. Showering is another, well, enough said. My typical day is lying on the floor like a rug. – Carl Love, a columnist with the Press Enterprise, writes about coming down with COVID-19, despite hardly going anywhere and “following the rules religiously.”

The number of first-time unemployment claims in the state fell to their lowest level in five months last week, according to numbers from the Federal Government.  An estimated 201,600 Californians filed first-time jobless claims last week, down 900 from the previous week.

Retail workers should be getting paid much, much more for all the insane crap they have to put up with nowadays:

And, it’s not just retail workers.  Sadly, it’s just about everyone who has to put up with nonsense…every damn day:

Yesterday, while doing outreach for LoveDolores, I was approached by this unknown Karen at Dolores Park. Upset about COVID regulations, she took it upon herself to cut & remove the blockade closing the Children’s Playground (mandated by City’s health orders) and verbally harass me. Working at the time, I felt like I needed to reel back my response to her hateful rant. However, for my own sake (even if this never reaches her), I want to let her and the other racist Karen’s in SF know that regardless of what they say, this is my home. Your bigotry is neither needed, wanted, or accepted here. If you can’t accept the beauty that comes from the great diversity that makes up SF culture, you might as well pack up your bags, hop back on the MayFlower, go back from wherever your racist ideologies come from, and return your land back to the indigenous people from whom it was stolen from. No one else should have to deal with your behavior here in SF or anywhere else. Even in our liberal city of San Francisco this is happening, and it’s up to us to say, “No Karen, BYE!!”#Karen #KarensGoneWild #CloseUpKaren #BYE #DoloresKaren#SF #DoloresPark#Karen✂️Hands——————————–More Info:San Francisco has been home for the past 5 years now, and thousands of amazing memories + people have made this uniquely beautiful city a special place for me. Not perfect by any means, but it has felt like a safe haven for me where I’m accepted for who I am and my differences appreciated + celebrated.Being born in Colombia and moving to the US when I was 9 yrs old, has greatly shaped my life and how I see the world around me. For a large portion of my life, I have felt like I didn’t belong…. Feeling that I was not Colombian or American enough, I found myself feeling like I didn’t have a place to easily exist as myself. That is, until I came to SF. I was greeted into the Quirky life here, where I’ve learned to love myself, get out of my comfort zone, and honestly just be myself. This is why this incident caught me off guard. I didn’t expect to have someone pull at my insecurities and feelings of not belonging in a place that prides itself as progressive and has felt like a safe space. To be personally attacked in my own backyard (I literally live a block away), one of my favorite places in the city, and also my work place came as a big surprise. I’m still processing, but feel like I needed to do respond some how…I’m writing this because I want to tell whoever this Karen may be that this City I love and call home, is a place that supports, welcomes, and looks out for one another. Your type of racist behavior is not ok and goes against the core ideal of what it means to be a San Franciscan. It doesn’t matter if you’re a lawyer or homeowner as mentioned multiple times while looking down on me because of my race, social economics, and my profession. Nothing gives you the right to treat people poorly and endanger the public safety of others by going against city health guidelines. In my community and in my home, bigotry is not welcome. I hope no one else has to be hurt by this person, especially another minority person who may already be struggling and living in fear with the current state of our country. I fear that this woman may continue to harass other people, unless she’s confronted publicly and shamed for it…so just keep your eyes out for her. Can't let her think she can do as she pleases. Regardless, I hope we as a Community and City can continue to find ways to support each other and fight against the discrimination taking place in our beloved city. Thanks for reading. Love y’all <3

Posted by Andres Patino on Monday, August 17, 2020

Meanwhile…

The election is 74 days away:

  • You can register to vote here.  
  • Sign up for updates on your mail-in ballot here.
  • Sign up to be a poll worker in Riverside County here.

On that last bullet up there, A 2018 study from Pew Research Center showed the majority of U.S. poll workers, 58 percent, were over 60 years old.  They are at a high-risk group during the pandemic. If you can, consider being a poll worker. 

The Palm Springs City Council voted unanimously to hold the election for the District 5 council seat.  They had considered cancelling the election and just appoint Lisa Middleton to the seat as she is running unopposed. As write-in candidates are still able to be added to the ballot, the council determined it was best to go ahead with the election as planned.

Some non-covid exciting news:

Finally…

Stay cool.  Stay safe.  Wear a mask.

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