Riverside County COVID Update: Hospitalizations, At-Home Tests

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in Riverside County, and the number of virus-infected people in intensive care, both notched up, according to county data released Tuesday.

The Riverside University Health System said COVID hospitalizations countywide were at 1,078 Tuesday, up by 55 patients from Monday's number reported by the California Department of Public Health. The total includes 158 intensive care patients, up by six from Monday's state figure.

One week ago, COVID hospitalizations stood at 900 patients countywide, with 139 people in intensive care.

Unvaccinated people make up about 90 percent of COVID hospitalizations, and most COVID deaths are occurring in unvaccinated patients, RUHS spokesperson Jose Arballo said earlier this month.

Some COVID-positive patients in local hospitals likely didn't know they were infected until they checked in to get treatment for some other ailment. State figures do not provide the breakdown.

Regardless, COVID-positive patients do put a strain on the health care system, according to Arballo. The patients require resource-intensive transmission-based precautions, including isolation rooms, cohorted staff and personal protective equipment, all of which put a high burden on hospitals that are already short on staff.

The total number of COVID-related hospitalizations countywide is roughly 40 percent below the peak count reached a year ago during the previous virus spike, when about 1,700 virus cases were recorded among hospitalized patients, according to RUHS.

RUHS on Tuesday also reported 10 more COVID-related deaths since Friday, bringing the county's pandemic total to 5,681. The number of reported COVID deaths is up by 46 people over the last week.

The fatalities are trailing indicators because of delays processing death certificates and can go back weeks, according to health officials.

Officials said the total number of COVID cases recorded in the county since the pandemic began in March 2020 now stands at 428,690. The figure is up by 10,211 new infections over the last week. The number does not include positive results from at-home COVID tests.

As of Thursday, RUHS data show that 59.3 percent of county residents ages 5 and older are fully vaccinated, while 24.6 percent of people 12 and older have received a booster.

For more information on vaccination, visit https://myturn.ca.gov/

Riverside County residents can now order free at-home COVID-19 rapid tests through the federal government. Orders for up to four tests per household can be placed using COVIDtests.gov.

The website rolled out on Tuesday, a day earlier than announced.

The tests are expected to ship within seven to 12 days of ordering.

In addition to being no-cost, there are no shipping costs, and no credit card information is required.

—Patch Editor Toni McAllister and City News Service contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on the Murrieta Patch