The number of people hospitalized with coronavirus in Riverside County has dropped slightly and an additional18 virus-related deaths were reported.
Numbers released Friday by the Riverside University Health System showed COVID-related hospitalizations countywide were at 422, down three from Thursday. That number includes 117 intensive care patients.
A total of 4,951 deaths from virus-related complications have been recorded in the past 18 months. The fatalities are trailing indicators because of delays processing death certificates and can go back weeks, according to health officials.
RUHS does not release updated COVID-19 statistics on weekends.
A technical error with state data on Thursday means that RUHS Friday figures reporting confirmed cases, recoveries — and by extension, active cases — are compared to Wednesday numbers.
On Friday, seven COVID infections were confirmed, lifting the county’s overall number since the pandemic began to 351,041.
The number of known active virus cases in the county Friday was 5,548, down 271 from Wednesday. The active count is derived by subtracting deaths and recoveries from the current total — 351,041 — according to the county Executive Office.
Verified patient recoveries countywide were 340,542.