Coronavirus Planning & Riverside County

Another week goes by as the Coronavirus pandemic goes on. For months, people have been distancing themselves from one another and making less contact in public from people if they haven’t already been doing that before. People either live in fear or they live just fine, but one thing we cannot blind ourselves from is change. People continue to hope that things will go back to normal, although some things do not seem to be letting up. Nevertheless, there’s still hope in the hearts of many Californians.

California has 788,000 Cases as of today, 15,018 which are deaths.

Orange County has slowly been reopening its doors since the start of September, and the number of cases and deaths seem to be going down more. The cumulative amount of positive tests is 52,063, which includes deaths. The rate of residents testing positive for COVID-19 in Orange County dropped from 4.2% to 3.9%, with 190 cases and one death reported as of today, according to the OCHCA (Orange County Health Care Agency). They have entered into a red zone, allowing churches, schools, restaurants, zoos, and other visitor heavy places to reopen with restrictions. They hope to be in the orange zone soon.

Things are about the same for Riverside County, but there are a large amount of cases in varying cities and communities. About 56,681 cases in the county have been reported, of which 51,988 have recovered, and 1,153 deaths have been confirmed, according to the Riverside University Health System. There have been about 2,000 new cases as of September 19th. Things look about the same, but Riverside County and its cities are still on the edge of staying temporarily closed or preparing to reopen, but one health adviser of Riverside County proposes a faster pace in reopening the county.

The Proposal to Reopen Sooner

(Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise)

Jeff Hewitt is a Libertarian supervisor on the Riverside County Supervisors Board and was elected in 2018. According to the Press Enterprise, Hewitt noticed that families are suffering during this pandemic, and he wants to reject the statewide plan from Governor Gavin Newsom. Instead, he wants to propose a new, county-controlled plan to reopen businesses and other public places within the county. This proposal is on the Board of Supervisors’ Agenda on Tuesday, Sep. 22, 2020. But if it is passed, there may be complications between the state and the county.

California, and the whole country, is in the most restrictive tier of the pandemic, the purple stage. Non-essential businesses that operate indoors are to be temporarily closed for the time being. Restaurants are a part of that, but as we’ve seen, many restaurants have moved outside. This purple stage is a part of a four-tier system in California. California was going to reopen businesses before, but ended up cancelling that after creating this four-tier system.

Hewitt feels that the state’s lack of clear guidelines has left many families in the county with uncertainty as to how they are going to be able to pay bills and provide for their families. He also stated that he has received phone calls from many families, calling his office, asking that they be able to get back to work and their kids back to school. The shutdown has taken a toll on the finances of the people and on their mental and physical health.

Hewitt’s plan is to reopen businesses like breweries, wineries, restaurants, places of worship, indoor offices, personal care businesses, and malls after Tuesday. This would be like operating on the orange tier, two tiers down from purple. In short, Hewitt wishes to reopen the county, with the same restrictions as before. It is unclear whether businesses would have to enforce mask wearing or not. This proposal could open wineries earlier, and theaters and gyms would open later.

However, this proposal has a threat to the county, or any county that defies the order. In May, two counties- Yuba and Tulare- defied Governor Newsom’s direct orders to follow the four-tier system, and kept businesses, like restaurants, open. “If they decide even though the numbers are going up ‘we’ve got this, we’re going to dismiss these new rules and regulations,’ We’re going to attach some considerations and consequences to that. There’s simply two and a half billion dollars in that budget that simply will not flow to those counties that do that,” Governor Gavin Newsom said in June. (Source)

With a large threat like this, Hewitt still wishes to press on with the proposal and new regulations in Riverside County.

“You can’t put any monetary value on somebody’s life. These families’ lives are being ruined … (if we lose state funding), I’ll make that trade off any day … we’re going to have cuts in funding anyway.” (Source)

The Proposal for Riverside County’s own coronavirus reopening plan on the Board of Supervisors Agenda will be on Tuesday, Sep. 20th, at 9:30 AM, at the County Administrative Center in Riverside.

UPDATE 9/25/20: Riverside County has moved to Red Tier, allowing the reopening of Churches, Gyms, Restaurants, and other businesses, with restrictions applied.

(source)

Post Covid-19 syndrome in children “severely damages children’s hearts”

(Photo by WWSB)

Case studies done at the University of Texas Health Center at San Antonio shows that a new syndrome called Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome is believed to be linked to Covid-19, and is mainly found in children. This syndrome “damages the heart to such an extent that some children may need lifelong monitoring and interventions.”

Multisystem-Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) shows to have symptoms similar to Kawasaki Disease. “This syndrome can strike seemingly healthy children without warning 3-4 weeks after asymptomatic infections,” said Alvaro Moreira, MD, MSc, of the UT Health Center at San Antonio, who is an assistant professor of pediatrics at the university’s Joe R’s & Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine. “Children might have no symptoms, no one knew they had the disease, and a few weeks later, they may develop this exaggerated inflammation in the body.”

662 children were a part of these 39 studies. 470 children (71.0%) were admitted into the ICU. Fever (100%), Abdominal Pain or Diarrhea (73.7%, 488), and Vomiting (68.3%, 452) were the most common symptoms. Mechanical ventilation was necessary in 22.2% (147), and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation was necessary in 4.4% (29). An abnormal endocardiograph (EKG) was observed in 314 of 581 patients (54.0%), with a depressed ejection fraction in 262 patients. 11 children died, and many of the children presented were in shock.

This syndrome is believed to be associated with Sars-CoV-2. Treatment for it has been effective, using immunoglobulin and glucocorticosteroids. The 581 that had an E.K.G. reported back these results: dilation of the coronary vessels, depressed ejection fraction, and 10% had an aneurysm in the coronary vessel. These results are very similar to Kawasaki disease.

Half of the patients in the case studies had underlying health conditions, like obesity. “Generally, in both adults and children, we are seeing that patients who are obese will have a worse outcome,” Dr. Moreira said.

Evidence suggests that children with MIS-C have immense inflammation and potential tissue injury to the heart, Dr. Moreira also said, “and we will need to follow these children closely to understand what implications they may have in the long term.”