Riverside County COVID hospitalizations decreasing but hospitals still hit hard

Riverside County's COVID-19 hospitalizations have continued to drop, however, local hospitals are still hit hard. But don't let that keep you from going in. 

"We still have quite a bit of non-COVID-related illnesses for patients being hospitalized," said Dr. Bruce Weng, an infectious disease specialist at Riverside University Health System Medical Center. "I think there's a little bit of a fear and hesitancy to following up and that may delay care."

Weng said there are different reasons why hospitals still have increasing demand as COVID patients decrease. They range from patients waiting to get care because they're scared of getting COVID, to procedures being delayed during the recent omicron surge. 

The county now has a total of 621 COVID hospitalizations. That is the lowest amount of patients since Jan. 4, 2022. The downward trend of hospitalizations really started to kick off a week-and-a-half ago.

Since Jan. 26, the county has reported 453 fewer COVID-19 hospitalizations.

COVID Hospitalizations in the past month-and-a-half:

• Feb. 9 - 621
• Feb. 8 - 664
• Feb. 7 - 686
• Feb. 4 - 832
• Feb. 3 - 855
• Feb. 2 - 910
• Feb. 1 - 911
• Jan. 26 - 1,074
• Jan. 19 - 1,109
• Jan. 18 - 1,087
• Jan. 7 - 791
• Dec. 30 - 432
• Dec. 1 - 238

Linda Evans is the chief strategy officer of community advocacy for Desert Care Network. 

"That's the reality. They do get backed up and then there's that catch-up time for patients and physicians to get scheduled and get in," said Evans. "Being that there's less COVID patients, but still a lot of other patients, you know, we're still stretched at times, but we're delivering care, and that's what we're here for."

Desert Regional Medical Center COVID patients:

• Feb. 9 - 45
• Feb. 2 - 73
• Jan. 26 - 92 

JFK Memorial Hospital COVID patients:

• Feb. 9 - 9
• Feb. 2 - 16
• Jan. 26 - 22 

Hi-Desert Medical Center COVID patients:

• Feb. 9 - 8
• Feb. 1 - 11
• Jan. 25 - 8

The latest report from Eisenhower Health shows it is experiencing decreasing hospitalizations over the past few days.

Eisenhower Health COVID patients:

• Feb. 9 - 43
• Feb. 2 - 62
• Jan. 26 - 74

Even though Eisenhower's COVID patients are down, an Eisenhower spokesperson said they're busier than ever. It's mostly because so many non-COVID patients put their care on hold and are now catching up on it. 

Regardless of the high demand, each hospital stresses the same thing:

"If you feel concerned about care, or safety during a procedure or treatment or going to a hospital, just know that you will be in great hands great car," said Evans.

"Don't neglect your care if you feel you need it. Please go get it. We all try to do what we can to make sure you're as safe as possible," said Weng.