Coachella Valley coronavirus news and info | Wednesday evening, April 29

By
Casey Dolan
-
(?: Susie Mintie Magged)

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 Wednesday, Riverside County officials have confirmed:

  • 3,942 people have tested positive for COVID-19.  207 people have tested positive in the last 24 hours.  
  • 143 people are confirmed to have died in the county from the coronavirus. There were two people reported dead in the last 24 hours.
  • There are currently 215 confirmed cases hospitalized, with 78 of them in the ICU.
  • There have been 1,346 official recovered cases in the county.

As of 4 pm Wednesday, San Bernardino County has confirmed 1,928 cases of COVID-19.  There have been 89 deaths in San Bernardino County.

As of 1:30 pm Wednesday, there have been 48,226 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in California.  There have been 1,935 confirmed deaths in the state.  62 people were reported dead from coronavirus in the state as of 1:30 pm.

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

The County of Riverside extended a previous mandate for social distancing and wearing a mask through June 19 in an effort to reduce the spread of COVID-19.  The date now aligns with California’s stay-at-home order and the county will follow the state’s mandates on gatherings and essential businesses.  “While we work within the governor’s plan for re-opening the state, people must be mindful that COVID-19 has not been eliminated,” Dr. Cameron Kaiser, the county’s public health officer, said in a statement. “The new normal in Riverside County will still require social distancing, facial coverings and other precautions. Summer will only slow the virus and we are already thinking about what will happen in the fall.”

 

The experimental drug remdesivir has proved effective against the new coronavirus, according to a major study.  The results show the drug shortening the time it takes for patients to recover by four days on average, according to the National Institutes of Health, which tested remdesivir versus usual care in 1,063 hospitalized coronavirus patients around the world.

Dr. Anthony Fauci was particularly encouraged by the results of the study:

Health experts recommend that contact lens wearers switch to glasses to reduce the spread of coronavirus.  Their reasoning: Because wearing glasses may help you stop touching your face. According to a doctor behind the recommendation, contact lens users not only touch their eyes to put in and remove their lens twice or more a day, they also touch their eyes and face much more than people who don’t wear contacts.

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Wednesday a collaboration between state farmers and ranchers to distribute excess products to local food banks. Newsom said on average, the state’s food banks have seen a 73 percent increase in demand since the coronavirus crisis struck.  Meanwhile, farmers and ranchers are experiencing a 50 percent reduction in demand. “We want to address that mismatch. We want to address the supply and demand,” he said during his daily news conference.

Advocates for seniors and people with disabilities are blasting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration for advising hospitals to prioritize younger people with greater life expectancy for care during the coronavirus outbreak.  The group says the state’s guidelines were discriminatory. “The disability, aging and older-adults community had reached out a number of times to the state of California sharing our concerns ahead of time and offering to meet,” said Claudia Center, legal director for the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund. “We got no response.”

The Palm Springs Air Museum will start conducting flyovers every Friday in May to pay tribute to local first-responders and health care and essential workers.  The flyovers will take place at 1 pm every week and will see different flight paths each Friday. This week will see planes fly over Desert Regional Medical Center, Palm Springs City Hall and Cathedral City City Hall

SunLine has wrapped a couple of buses to honor essential workers:

The pandemic has slowed trade-based money laundering systems that drug trafficking groups use to repatriate profits and move Chinese capital into Southern California, reports the LA Times. Dirty money is now literally piling up as, in the last three weeks, federal agents made three seizures that each netted more than $1 million in suspected drug proceeds.

Major League Baseball is looking at a few options to reopen the league later this year. In one plan, the league would be split into three divisions to cutdown on travel.  The move would have the Dodgers, Angels, and Padres battling it out in the same division.

Having good WiFi is particularly important nowadays as many homes have become workplaces and classrooms.  The Washington Post has a five-step guide to making sure your network is working at its best.

For those looking for some local delivery options:

Thanks to fan feedback we have decided to start offering delivery of your favorite Brandini products throughout the…

Posted by Brandini Toffee on Monday, April 27, 2020

Thank you to all of our loyal and new customers that have been SO supportive to us during this COVID-19 crisis! We…

Posted by Papa Dan's Pizza and Pasta on Monday, April 20, 2020

Finally, after recovering from the coronavirus, Tom Hanks has donated plasma at UCLA.  Of the donation process, the actor says that, “it’s as easy as taking a nap.”

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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