COVID-19: Coachella Valley sees 21% week-over-week increase in cases

The Coachella Valley and Riverside County are continuing to see a rise in COVID-19 cases as music festival season continues in the area. 

The nine Coachella Valley cities reported 233 new cases in the week ending Tuesday. That is an increase of 21% compared to the previous week, when there were 193 cases reported between April 12 and 19. There was also one death reported in Indio.

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival recently brought in tens of thousands of visitors to the Coachella Valley over two weekends, and the Stagecoach country music festival is set to take place Friday through Sunday, as well as White Party Palm Springs. Few masks were spotted among the crowds at both weekends of Coachella, though some festivalgoers still said the virus was a concern. 

County spokesperson Jose Arballo Jr. said there are no indications that the increase in cases is tied to Coachella as of right now. But if there were to be significant increases as a result of the festival, they would show up in about two weeks.

The latest report from the Palm Springs Wastewater Treatment Plant shows that the concentration of COVID-19 in the city far surpasses last year's numbers. There were 368,255 viral copies of coronavirus per liter of wastewater on April 19 this year, respectively. Last year, there were 15,599 viral copies of coronavirus per liter of wastewater detected on April 19, 2021.

Here is a full breakdown of confirmed total cases, deaths and recoveries by city since the start of the pandemic (with weekly changes shown in parentheses):

• Cathedral City: 12,305 confirmed cases (+20), 150 deaths (+0), 12,117 recoveries (+23)
• Coachella: 12,826 confirmed cases (+3), 121 deaths (+0), 12,685 recoveries (-2)
• Desert Hot Springs: 7,750 confirmed cases (+7), 99 deaths (+0), 7,640 recoveries (+10)
• Indian Wells: 597 confirmed cases (+3), 8 deaths (+0), 579 recoveries (+11)
• Indio: 22,320 confirmed cases (+55), 280 deaths (+1), 21,956 recoveries (+46)
• La Quinta: 7,839 confirmed cases (+40), 82 deaths (+0), 7,696 recoveries (+34)
• Palm Desert: 9,171 confirmed cases (+37), 147 deaths (+0), 8,967 recoveries (+45)
• Palm Springs: 7,808 confirmed cases (+47), 156 deaths (+0), 7,576 recoveries (+37)
• Rancho Mirage: 2,570 confirmed cases (+21), 56 deaths (+0), 2,482 recoveries (+18)

Riverside County has reported more than 600,500 COVID-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic, according to new data released Tuesday. 

The county reported 720 new cases between Friday and Tuesday, according to new county data. That is up 37% from the previous week, when there were 526 cases reported between April 15 and 19.

Riverside County's case and positivity rates also increased slightly over the past week. On Tuesday, the case rate was 4.6 per 100,000, and the positivity rate was 2.7%, compared to 4.1 per 100,000 and 2.4% on April 19.

While cases increased, hospitalizations are staying low. There were 38 patients on Tuesday, down 17 from Friday. That also included five people in intensive care.

Four more deaths were reported since Friday, bringing the total to 6,511 since the beginning of the pandemic.

In Riverside County, 62.2% of residents ages 5 and older are fully vaccinated and another 6.7% are partially vaccinated. About 32.8% of the population ages 12 and older has received an additional/booster shot. 

Ema Sasic covers health in the Coachella Valley. Reach her at ema.sasic@desertsun.com or on Twitter @ema_sasic.