Riverside County Supervisors acknowledged the need to engage with the state and neighboring counties to develop public health and safety criteria appropriate for large, diverse urban communities—Riverside is the fourth most populous county in the state.

Two days later, on Wednesday, May 13th, the county had already added another 154 confirmed cases and brought the county’s total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases to 5,343, and another 11 Riverside residents were dead—this raised Riverside County’s COVID-19 death toll to 228.

The IE Voice/Black Voice News reached out to Riverside County Health Officer Dr. Cameron Kaiser, who leads the county Department of Public Health and requested his position as a “healthcare professional” regarding the value of wearing facemasks and social distancing, in part to protect the person wearing it, but more so to protect everyone he/she may interact with while the virus continues to spread.

It clearly declares, “The state’s required epidemiologic benchmarks for advancement through Accelerated Stage 2 are unrealistic for urban counties, and Riverside County in particular, where our geographic size and population make it impossible that no deaths from COVID-19 will result in a 14-day timeframe.”

Whether Riverside County has done enough to meet the state’s Phase 2 rapid implementation requirements is doubtful, though a final decision now rests with Governor Newsom.