RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA – With its growing number of coronavirus infections, deaths and hospitalizations, the state ordered Riverside County on Monday to shut down indoor operations at gyms; hair, nails and other personal care salons; tattoo parlors; houses of worship; malls; and non-critical office environments.
Businesses can remain open, but only if they can be modified to operate out or by pickup, according to Governor Gavin Newsom, who announced the request during a press conference.
Indoor protests are also banned, but outdoor activities are still allowed, according to the governor.
The order affects 30 counties on the state’s COVID-19 watch list, including all counties in Southern California: Riverside, Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Ventura.
Other counties on the list are Colusa, Contra Costa, Fresno, Glenn, Kern, Kings, Madera, Marin, Merced, Monterey, Napa, Placer, Sacramento, San Benito, San Joaquin, Santa Barbara, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tulare, Yolo and Yuba.
Last week in Riverside County, COVID-19 one-day reported increase records were set three times. During the weekend, 983 other cases were reported, with a total of 25,748. Of that total, 9,711 people have recovered from the virus.
The number of weekends is low compared to last week’s dramatic increases. County spokeswoman Brooke Federico explained that commercial labs, mainly under the LabCorp umbrella, where most of the county’s tests are processed, are lagging in the report results, so the end statistic week is probably less than the actual number.
“As we struggle with national laboratory problems that artificially depress new cases, people need to realize that we are far from being out of the woods,” said Dr. Cameron Kaiser, Riverside County public health officer. “The summer heat does not stop COVID-19 …. We need to reduce the impact on our hospitals by reducing transmission, and as the numbers continue to rise, the state’s need to reimpose the restrictions will continue to increase as well.”
Deaths reported over the weekend in Riverside County increased by 13 to 550 across the county.
While the total number of hospitalized patients decreased by 15 to 511, the figure includes 139 people in the ICU, representing an increase of 23 patients since Friday’s report.
COVID-19 testing is 289,362 across the county, up from 12,728 since Friday.
Across the state, there have been a record number of infections in the past few days, along with increasing hospitalizations. As of Monday, Newsom said 6,485 were hospitalized across the state due to the coronavirus. The seven-day moving average of people who tested positive for the virus was 7.7%.
The Riverside County seven-day moving average, known as the positivity rate, has been below 16%.
While Riverside and other watch list counties had been ordered to close bars and indoor operations in restaurants, wineries, movie theaters, zoos, aquariums, family entertainment centers, and arcades, the order spread throughout the state Monday. .
Newsom reiterated that the state’s enactment of sanitary restrictions was being handled with a “dimmer switch,” meaning that the severity of orders can be adjusted up or down based on the latest virus statistics and “trend lines. “
“This virus will not go away anytime soon,” said the governor. “I hope we all recognize that if we were still connected to some notion that somehow when it warms up it will go away or somehow take summer months or free weekends, this virus has not worked. You have seen parts of the hot country … climate where you see an increase in positivity rates, an increase in hospitalizations and ICUs Here in the state of California as we are seeing triple digit weather in many parts of our state We are still seeing an increase in the positivity rate, community transmission. We are seeing an increase in the spread of the virus. “
The previous Monday, the state’s two largest school districts, Los Angeles Unified and San Diego Unified, announced that they would not reopen the campuses at the beginning of the school year due to COVID-19 concerns, and that they would instead continue with distance learning.
In Riverside County, school districts are still in the process of solving the problems associated with reopening classrooms at the beginning of the 2020-21 school year on August 12. Although various learning models have been discussed, districts are not ready to make firm commitments given the changing situation of COVID-19.
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—City News Service contributed to this report.
