The state of California will lift its COVID-19 indoor mask-wearing requirement for vaccinated people next week amid a continuing drop in the number of COVID-positive patients in Riverside County hospitals.
The Riverside University Health System on Monday announced that the number of COVID-positive patients in county hospitals dropped from 720 reported on Sunday to 686 Monday. Of those patients, 122 were in intensive care, down from 125 reported by the state Sunday.
Officials have said some patients entered hospitals for other reasons and only discovered they had COVID after a hospital-mandated test.
The RUHS does not report COVID data on weekends.
The RUHS on Monday reported 4,370 new cases of COVID-19 and 39 new deaths associated with the virus, leaving the county’s COVID death toll at 5,957 since the pandemic began.
Fatalities are considered trailing indicators because of delays processing death certificates, meaning some deaths may have actually occurred weeks ago, according to health officials.
The aggregate number of COVID-19 cases recorded in the county since the pandemic began in March 2020 is 464,498.
The number of known active virus cases in the county was 56,387 Monday. The active count is derived by subtracting deaths and recoveries from the current total — 464,498. Verified patient recoveries countywide are 402,154.
Meanwhile, state officials announced Monday the indoor mask wearing requirement for vaccinated people will expire at the end of the day Feb. 15. Gov. Gavin Newsom said the move is the result of a 65% drop in the infection rate since the peak of the winter surge caused by the Omicron variant of COVID-19, as well as a stabilization in hospitalization numbers.
But he stressed that “unvaccinated people will still need to wear masks indoors.” The mask-wearing requirement will also remain in effect for everyone in select indoor locations, such as public transit centers, airports, schools, emergency shelters, health care facilities, correctional facilities, homeless shelters and long-term care and senior-care facilities.
Unvaccinated people will have to continue wearing masks in indoor settings such as retail stores, restaurants, theaters and government offices.
The change in state policy will affect counties that do not have local mandates of their own governing face coverings — such as Orange, Riverside and San Diego counties. Neighboring Los Angeles County has its own indoor mask-wearing mandate, and those rules will remain in place in that county.