A few readers emailed me about some info they heard re: #coronavirus and Riverside County - specifically, that patients are being "airlifted" from border areas to Riverside County hospitals per a state order and that's boosting the county's COVID numbers.

Here's what I know. 1/

Per the county spokeswoman, there is no state order requiring the county to take in COVID patients from border areas or anywhere else.

Per a standing mutual aid agreement, Imperial County patients hospitalized w/COVID have been xferred to Riverside County hospitals. 2/

On May 22, Riverside County Supervisor V. Manuel Perez announced that 16 Americans living in Mexico, who were hospitalized w/COVID in Imperial County, were xferred to Riverside County.

It's in this story: https://bit.ly/3i1GSPw  3/

Here's a story I did on May 27 re: 63 Imperial County patients being treated in RivCo hospitals - https://bit.ly/2V92AHh 

As of last Friday, 10 of 291 COVID patients hospitalized in Riverside County are from Imperial County. https://bit.ly/3hTBygL  4/

While the county hit a new high in COVID hospitalizations last Friday, the county has roughly 3,600 licensed hospital beds. So COVID patients - at least not yet - are not overwhelming the system, although the county has surge plans in place if that happens. 5/

A note about how the Imperial County patients are counted. If you're from that county and you get the virus, your case is counted against Imperial County's numbers.

So it's not a situation where Imperial County COVID cases are boosting Riverside County's case numbers. 6/

Imperial County patients hospitalized in Riverside County ARE counted against Riverside County's hospitalization numbers.

I hope that helps. Please continue to check http://PE.com  for the latest on #coronavirus in Riverside County. 7/7