As of Monday, Hemet Unified School District’s Dashboard reports recently (last two weeks) confirmed cases of COVID at Idyllwild School as being seven students and two staff members, which is 2.93% of its combined student/staff population — while at Hemet High, 25 students and one staff member are reported as confirmed cases, which is 1.00% of its student/staff population. Both are considerable reductions from last week’s report, but Valle Vista Elementary is the only other HUSD school with more than 1% of its student/staff population at 1.27% — less than half of Idyllwild School’s figure. Hamilton High reports one student and one staff member as confirmed COVID cases, or 0.44% of its student/staff population.
The HUSD Dashboard also states: “Positive cases will appear on the Dashboard for 14 days from the date they are reported and then will be removed after the 14th day.” So, HUSD’s Dashboard does not report cumulative confirmed cases throughout the district, but only those cases confirmed as active during the previous two weeks.
As of Monday, Riverside County Public Health still reported 216 total cases of COVID in the Idyllwild-Pine Cove community, with 200 recovered and four deaths, leaving 12 cases currently active in our community.
County-wide, RCPH reported a total of 353,500 confirmed COVID cases (2,252 more than last week) with 5,008 deaths (35 more than last week). The county now reports 291 hospitalized COVID patients (17 fewer than last week). ICU beds available in Riverside County have grown from 62 to 94 during this past week. The Centers for Disease Control continues to rate Riverside County as a “substantial-transmission” area and is still reporting that 59.6% of Riverside County’s eligible population, ages 12 and up, have been fully vaccinated — but Riverside County Public Health continues to report 52.4%.
California reported 4,588,231 total confirmed COVID cases (35,037 more than last week), with 70,416 resulting deaths (675 more than last week).
The CDC website reports that in August, unvaccinated persons had 6.1 times greater risk (not of testing positive for COVID-19 compared to fully vaccinated persons) while unvaccinated persons had 11.3 times greater risk of dying from COVID-19.
As of Oct. 15, CDC also reports: “Fewer cases of COVID-19 have been reported in children (ages 0-17 years) compared with adults. Rates of COVID-19-associated hospitalizations are also lower in children of all ages compared to adults, but some children develop acute COVID-19 symptoms requiring hospitalization. All eligible people, including adolescents ages 12-17 years, should get vaccinated to help stop the pandemic. Everyone in the United States 12 years and older is eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, yet vaccination coverage among adolescents is lower than in older groups.
“Children with underlying medical conditions, including obesity, are at increased risk for severe COVID-19 illness compared to children without underlying medical conditions.” The CDC defines “severe COVID-19 illness” as requiring “hospitalization, intensive care, or a ventilator to help them breathe.” CDC warns that “Children diagnosed with obesity may experience worse outcomes from COVID-19.”
CDC reports that current national seven-day moving average of daily new U.S. COVID cases has decreased 12.5% compared with last week.
From the CDC website: “As of October 14, 95.4% of people ages 65 or older have received at least one dose of vaccine and 84.2% are fully vaccinated. More than three-quarters (78.6%) of people ages 18 years or older have received at least one dose of vaccine and 68.1% are fully vaccinated. For people ages 12 years or older, 76.8% have received at least one dose of vaccine and 66.4% are fully vaccinated.”
Further CDC resources are available at www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/.