Coachella Valley coronavirus news and info | Tuesday, August 25

By
Casey Dolan
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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 Tuesday, Riverside County officials have confirmed:

  • 51,200 people have officially tested positive for COVID-19.  456 people have been reported positive since Friday.
  • 978 people are confirmed to have died in the county from the coronavirus. The county reported 6 new deaths in the last 24 hours.

Here’s the latest from the Coachella Valley:

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

  • 45,666 people have officially tested positive for COVID-19.
  • 695 people are confirmed to have died in the county from the coronavirus.

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

        • 678,735 people have official tested positive for COVID-19.
        • 12,303 people are confirmed to have died in the state of CA from the coronavirus.

A brief roundup of local items is below, but first a note…

As I type this, I, like so many others am waiting on coronavirus test results.  Six days ago, I sat in my car at an Indio Ride Aid pharmacy drive thru.  A pharmacist who I had to struggle to see from behind the only piece of glass in the drive thru not boarded up with plywood (I assume the others must’ve been broken at some point) instructed my just how far to insert a swab up my nose (it’s a brain tingler) not just one, but twice! – all to get a sample to send out for testing.  It was far from pleasant, but the waiting is far worse.

Now let me go back for a second, I am not showing any symptoms, but I scheduled the test immediately after being informed that I was in a room during a meeting with someone who was exhibiting symptoms.  Though we had practiced social distancing at the meeting, it was indoors and, knowing what I do about air conditioning and the coronavirus, I decided to quickly get tested.

I am lucky in that I am able to work from home and quarantine while I await the test results.  Of course, marriage being what it is, my wife is now forced to do the same, while we await my results…whenever they may come in…wondering if we may be infected and trying out best to make sure that if we are, we don’t give it to anyone else.  For many of you, this is not anything new.  You have experienced it yourself once or even several times as the pandemic drags on. 

I was excited to get an email today regarding the results, but it was just an email alerting me that the results would not be in today and may take 10 days…or maybe even longer. Who knows. 

There is no way that life can return to any sense of normal with results taking this long.  Like I said, I am lucky in that I can stay home.  For many others, it’s impossible to do the same.  While it’s nice that there are now many locations in the Coachella Valley now offering tests, finding out your results from those two weeks later is worthless.  

As many push to “return to normal” with schools reopening, football being played, bars doing their thing, and, as Riverside County would like, events and even wedding receptions resuming in just a couple of weeks, there just doesn’t seem to work our safely unless the testing is there and, clearly, it just isn’t right now, let alone heading into cold and flu season.  But hey, the local TV news is doing stories on possibly getting bad breath from masks, so it’s nice to know that everyone has their eye on the real issues these days.

Continuing to let testing results lag, while just crossing your fingers and hoping for the best is not a strategy and it’s not leadership. It’s all so frustrating and it’s so predictable. Other places on this planet are doing it.  Why not us too?

For now, stay home as much as you can.  When you got out, wear a mask.  Be safe and be smart.

The timing on this is odd, The CDC amended the agency’s guidance on testing on Monday to say that people who have been in close contact with a person with the coronavirus — typically defined as being within 6 feet of that person for at least 15 minutes — “do not necessarily need a test” if they do not have symptoms. Experts have questioned the revision, saying that it’s important to identify infections in the brief window immediately before the onset of symptoms, when many individuals are thought to be most contagious. “This is potentially dangerous,”  an infectious disease physician told the New York Times. Restricting testing to only people with obvious symptoms of COVID-19 means “you’re not looking for a lot of people who are potential spreaders of disease,” she added. “I feel like this is going to make things worse.”

There have now been three reported cases of people becoming reinfected with the coronavirus. 

Fourteen elementary schools in the county have applied for waivers for in-person instruction. The county’s chief health officer told the Board of Supervisors that he’s approved two waivers and that, before reopening, those schools need the state’s OK — which is expected later this week. None of the schools were named.

Zobo and Meester’s – the Cathedral City spot visited by Guy Fieri on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives a couple of years ago –  has announced that they will be closing after losing business during the coronavirus:

GOING OUT OF BUSINESSENJOY YOUR FAVORITE ZOBO & MEESTER'S MEAL UNTIL WEDNESDAY SEPT. 9th.Sadly it's true, Covid 19…

Posted by Zobo & Meester's on Monday, August 24, 2020

The virtual school year at College of the Desert is off to a tough start. The school announced that their website has been infected with malware:

Dear Colleagues: I wanted to notify you of a malware event experienced by the College on August 23rd. Our Information…

Posted by College of the Desert on Tuesday, August 25, 2020

Finally…

Stay cool.  Stay safe.  Wear a mask.

Thank you for your continued support of Cactus Hugs.

Anything we missed? Let us know about it.

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