The number of COVID-positive patients in Riverside County hospitals has declined again, falling from 276 to 258, according to the latest state figures.
Of those patients, 49 were in intensive care, down from 54 on Saturday.
Some patients likely entered the hospital for other reasons and discovered they had COVID after a mandated test.
The county’s COVID hospitalizations had climbed as high as 1,109 in mid-January during a surge in cases driven by the Omicron variant, but have been steadily declining since then.
The latest numbers come two days after the Riverside University Health System reported seven additional deaths connected to COVID-19, bringing the county’s virus-related death toll to 6,194 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 RUHS also reported 654 new positive COVID tests Friday. The aggregate number of COVID-19 cases recorded in the county since the pandemic began in March 2020 is 590,199.
The number of known active virus cases in the county was 59,387 Friday. The active count is derived by subtracting deaths and recoveries from the current total — 590,199. Verified patient recoveries countywide are 524,618.
The RUHS does not report COVID data on weekends.