VOICE News Staff
Riverside, CA – Riverside County has experienced a 90 percent increase in COVID-19 patients since Saturday, March 21, 2020. While San Bernardino County reported its first death from the virus on Tuesday, by Saturday, Riverside had already reported six deaths related to the virus.
Riverside County is now in the process of erecting a temporary hospital (federal medical center) at the fairgrounds in Indio. The Coachella Valley “Field” Hospital will help local health officials cope with the growing threat of the spreading virus. It is part of a statewide measure to aggressively prepare for what is expected to be a flurry of COVID-19 patients in the coming weeks, possibly months.
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump promised to support the development of eight such hospitals across the state—collectively they will add approximately 2,000 hospital beds to the states capacity that according to the governor actually needs a total of at least 50,000 additional hospital beds to meet the expected COVID-19 demand.
“We know we’ll have more cases and some of them will be serious. This medical station will relieve stress from our hospitals, allowing them to better provide higher levels of care for our sickest individuals and get more people on the way to recover faster,” said Riverside County Public Health Official Dr. Cameron Kaiser
For additional information regarding COVID-19, call Riverside County Public Health at 2-1-1 or visit the county’s special website at www.rivcoph.org/coronavirus.
