The Imperial County Public Health Department has updated the COVID-19 Dashboard.
As of Friday morning there have been 348 deaths attributed to the virus. That's an increase of 5 over the Thursday numbers. Active cases in the Valley now number 599 , a slight drop from the 619 reported Thursday. There are now 30.64 new cases per day per 100,000 population and testing shows a 17.82% positivity rate.
At a Thursday afternoon press conference , El Centro Regional Medical Center CEO Dr. Adolphe Edward said that the facility had 118 patients in the hospital with 47 of them COVID-19 positive. Fourteen of the sixteen ECRMC ICU beds were occupied by COVID-19 patients. Pioneers Memorial Healthcare District CEO Larry Lewis said that the Brawley hospital had 15 COVID patients.
Dr. Edward said that ECRMC was adding 50 additional medical/surgical beds with the installation of a temporary facility at the north entrance to the hospital. They are also working on bringing in additional health care workers to staff the temporary facility and prepare for an expected increase in the coronavirus with the upcoming holidays. The temporary facility at the Imperial Valley College gym is also being readied to accept patients if necessary.
