Top Doc 'Cautiously Optimistic' About RivCo's COVID-19 Stats

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — As Riverside County inches closer toward falling off California's coronavirus "watch list," officials are awaiting word from the governor's office about new statewide guidelines for reopening businesses that are expected to be announced this week.

Riverside County Public Health Officer Dr. Cameron Kaiser told the Riverside County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that he is "cautiously optimistic that we are making progress on our COVID-19 case rate, and our positivity rate continues to decline steadily.

"Hospitalizations and case numbers are both improving," he continued.

Confirmed coronavirus cases in Riverside County climbed by 456 Tuesday. The aggregate number of COVID-19 infections recorded since the public health documentation period began in early March was 51,200, compared to 50,744 on Monday.

According to the Riverside University Health System, the total number of deaths tied to COVID-19 stands at 978, up by six since Monday's report.

"Unfortunately, we are still seeing deaths," Kaiser told the board, explaining that some of those are tied to the July surge in COVID-19 cases.

"It should still serve as a reminder that this virus must be taken seriously," Kaiser said, noting that public vigilance in following COVID-19 safety guidelines is still important until a vaccine is available.

RUHS officials said 222 people are hospitalized for treatment of COVID- 19, down two from a day earlier, with 79 patients in intensive care units, down three in 24 hours.

Hospitalizations have been trending down since mid-July.

"We are polling hospitals every single day," county Emergency Management Director Bruce Barton told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. "The data on hospitalizations is very solid. We are at the lowest point since early June for (COVID-19) hospitalizations.

"Hospitals are now seeing an increase in non-COVID patients, as some of the hospitals are gaining back their capabilities to ratchet up elective surgeries," the EMD director continued.

Department of Public Health Director Kim Saruwatari told the board Tuesday that COVID-19 testing has dropped off, which could result in future outbreaks. Through testing, positive cases can be identified and virus spread decreased, she said.

As of Tuesday, 495,955 people have been tested for the virus countywide.

The state's public health officials are working on a revised statewide framework for determining business and industry re-openings, with details expected later this week, Saruwatari said.

"Hopefully we will see more data-driven decisions in that framework," she said.

During a news briefing last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom said, “We’re working on new criteria, more prescriptive criteria, more dynamic criteria, as it relates to our health order statewide, as it relates to reopening business sectors in the state.”

For the time being, Riverside County remains on the state's coronavirus "watch list" due to its COVID-19 case rate and positivity rate. According to California Department of Public Health data, Riverside County's seven-day positivity rate is 9.2 percent while its case rate is 156.1 positive cases per 100,000 people tested over the last 14 days. The state threshold is 8 percent (or less) positivity rate, while the case-rate benchmark is 100 positive cases (or less) per 100,000 tested.

If the county meets the thresholds, that would begin the clocking ticking toward schools reopening. A county that remains off the watch list for 14 consecutive days can reopen campuses at the discretion of district officials.

On Friday, Riverside County announced it was accepting applications from elementary schools (grades TK-6) that want to receive waivers for allowing in-person instruction. The state OK'd the process due to the county's falling coronavirus numbers.

As of Tuesday morning, Kaiser said he had received 14 applications from private schools, none from public schools. Two of the applications have been approved by Kaiser and are pending the state's green light.

San Diego and Orange counties are now off the state watch list. On Tuesday, the question of "what's next" came up during the Orange County Board of Supervisors meeting.

Dr. Clayton Chau, Orange County's interim chief health officer and director of the Orange County Health Care Agency, told the board he was "optimistically confident" that the county will remain off the state's watch list.

Orange County was removed from the list Sunday.

Orange County Supervisor Lisa Bartlett said coming off the state's watch list does not mean the state will also reopen various businesses for indoor commerce such as personal services, shopping malls, restaurants and bars.

"I think it's important to clarify what that means, because a lot of individuals and businesses think that once we get through this 14-day wait period that we can open everything up again," she said.

"The only sector that can reopen is the schools," Chau replied.

But Chau said he is "hopeful" the state will issue new guidelines soon to reopen some of the closed businesses.

"There's a conversation between the state health officer and all the other county health officers on how do we reopen the other business sectors safely," he said.

—City News Service contributed to this report.