The Desert Sun newspaper reveals a dramatic increase in Covid cases. You actually see many more people masking up as a result:
Riverside County COVID-19 case numbers have jumped 736% in just two weeks, and now hospitalizations have also started to climb.
Between Tuesday and Friday, Riverside County added 1,279 COVID-19 cases. Compared to the previous week, that is a 70% increase from the 751 cases reported between May 3 and 6. Further, it represents a 736% increase from when there were just 153 COVID-19 cases reported between April 26 and 29.
The case and positivity rates in the county have steadily increased as well. The case rate was 11.9 per 100,000, and the positivity rate was 5.9% on Friday. On Tuesday, those rates were 10.2 per 100,000 and 5.1%.
Hospitalizations, which have remained consistently low for several weeks, have also been impacted by rising case numbers. There were 62 patients on Friday, up 12 from Tuesday. That includes four people in intensive care, which actually decreased from eight reported on Tuesday.