Riverside County moves into CDC’s high level of COVID transmission

The Centers for Disease Control has moved Riverside County and San Bernardino counties into the "High level of Covid Transmission."

Riverside County currently has 260 COVID-19 patients in the hospital. A month ago, that number was at 123.

San Bernardino County has a total of 258 COVID hospitalizations. A month ago, that number was also at 123.

The two counties join Los Angeles County in the high level of transmission category. LA County announced last week that if the county continues remains in the "high" category for two straight weeks, the indoor mask mandate would remain. The mandate could return in LA County on July 29. 

We reached out to Riverside County last week to check and see if there are any plans for our county to also bring back the mask mandate. Jose Arballo Jr, spokesperson for the Riverside County Department of Public Health, confirmed that there have been no discussions on bringing back the mask mandate in our county.

"Right now there have been no discussions regarding any mandate to require indoor masking. Riverside County has followed state guidelines throughout the pandemic so if there was any change at the state level, then there could be a consideration," Jose Arballo Jr, senior public information specialist for Riverside County.

With the recent update from the CDC, we've reached back in to Riverside County. Arballo reiterated again that there are no plans for a mask mandate and leaders have not had discussion to bring in back.

"There are no plans to institute mask mandate at this time and it has not been discussed
The numbers have been increasing over the last few months, and it appears some of increase could be from 4th of July holiday, so the level change was not a surprise," Arballo wrote to News Channel 3.

We are also working to check with San Bernardino County about any possible plans to follow LA County.

Over the past month, Riverside County has reported 29,983 new COVID cases, 35 deaths, and 26,404 recoveries.

Stay with News Channel 3 for any updates.