Riverside County health officials have reported more than 1,000 new infections and 28 new COVID-19 fatalities, marking the largest one-day increase in deaths since the pandemic began, although officials cautioned that the tally includes deaths that occurred mostly over the course of the last week and a half.
The death toll now stands at 617, with the youngest fatality reported Wednesday being a 38-year-old man from Menifee and the oldest being a 96-year-old woman from Palm Desert, according to Riverside University Health System spokesman Jose Arballo.
Arballo said Wednesday’s tally includes one death from mid-June with the remainder being spread out over a time period that began July 11.
Officials also reported 1,092 newly confirmed cases Wednesday, bringing the total case number to 31,982. The aggregate coronavirus case count stretches back to early March, when the documentation period began.
The number of known active virus cases countywide is 20,095, up 852 from Tuesday. The active count is derived by subtracting deaths and recoveries from the current total — 31,982 — according to the county Executive Office.
Health officials said the number of confirmed patient recoveries is 11,270. The county defines a recovery as someone who hasn’t manifested symptoms for 14 days.
According to RUHS, 528 people were hospitalized for COVID-19, eight fewer than Tuesday. The hospitalization number includes 143 patients in intensive care units, up eight from the previous day.
Riverside County has the second-most cases and deaths in California, behind only Los Angeles County. California now has the most COVID-19 cases in the country after passing New York on Wednesday, though New York has recorded more fatalities.
Department of Public Health Director Kim Saruwatari told the Board of Supervisors last week that the average positivity rate among those screened for the virus countywide is at 20%, two and a half times the preferred state threshold of 8%.
The doubling time — or the number of days in which documented virus cases increase 100% — is now at 26 days. A doubling rate of seven days is considered severe.
Most of the county’s fatalities stemming from complications tied to COVID-19 have been people between the ages of 65 and 84, according to RUHS. Most of the county’s infections are in the 25 to 44 age group.
As of Tuesday, of all the patients being treated in Riverside County, only one is from neighboring Imperial County, the site of a coronavirus outbreak that overwhelmed that county’s two hospitals, prompting about 500 patients to be transferred to other locales.