Confirmed cases of COVID-19 continue to increase in the Morongo Basin. The county reported Friday that confirmed cases in our area are now up to 53, up from 50 on Wednesday. Two additional cases are in Yucca Valley, which now has 19 confirmed cases, and one additional case in Twentynine Palms, which now has 12. There are 15 cases in Joshua Tree and seven in Morongo Valley.
In the county, confirmed cases are up to 6,040, with 3,553 cases listed as “recovered” on the county’s COVID-19 website. The doubling time is now estimated at 16.6 days, compared to about five days in March.
A free walk-up testing site will be at Copper Mountain College for about two more weeks. Managing editor Tami Roleff has more information about the free testing…
While appointments are required to be tested for COVID-19 at Copper Mountain College, residents do not need to show symptoms. The county is now also offering serology testing, for as long as supplies last. Serology testing indicates if residents have been exposed to the coronavirus in the past. Even residents who think they have never been exposed to COVID-19 are encouraged to get tested; the more people who are tested, the lower the county’s positive rate will be. One metric for determining whether a county can reopen is whether it has kept new cases over the last 14 days to less than 25 per 100,000 residents; San Bernardino’s rate was 84.7 as of Friday.
