The number of coronavirus patients in Riverside County hospitals increased by one to 357, while the number of those patients in intensive care remained at 77, according to the latest state figures.
The aggregate number of COVID cases recorded in the county rose by 1,008 since Wednesday, reaching 390,065 since the pandemic began, according to the Riverside University Health System.
The RUHS does not report new cases or deaths on weekends or holidays, so no updates were provided Friday, Saturday or Sunday.
While the Omicron variant of the coronavirus surges nationally, the RUHS continued Thursday to report only one such case in Riverside County — recorded the previous week.
“We knew that it was likely the variant would eventually arrive in Riverside County, so this is no surprise or cause for widespread concern,” Kim Saruwatari, director of public health, said last Friday. “The same steps that helped protect us against the virus in the past remain in place.”
Authorities were investigating whether the individual diagnosed with Omicron traveled before testing positive in Los Angeles County on Dec. 8. The report on variants of concern such as Delta and Omicron has yet to be updated since Monday.
The number of known active virus cases countywide was 5,771 on Thursday, up 763 from Wednesday. The active count is derived by subtracting deaths and recoveries from the current total — 390,065 — according to the county Executive Office. Verified patient recoveries countywide are 378,740.
A total of 5,554 deaths from virus-related complications have been recorded in the county in the past 21 months. The fatalities are trailing indicators because of delays processing death certificates and can go back weeks, according to health officials.