by Steven Felschundneff | steven@claremont-courier.com

On the eve of a new shutdown order across much of the state, evidence emerged Sunday that Claremont is not immune from the surge as the county reports 37 new cases here in just the last 24 hours and 92 in the last week.

County public health officials are reporting 823 cumulative cases in Claremont and 15 deaths. Unfortunately, there are some new institutional outbreaks in the city including ANM Aura Care Home with four staff members and four residents testing positive; Comfort Keepers Home Care with three staff members; Genesis Manor 5 with two residents; and Pilgrim Place Assisted Living with 12 staff and five residents.

The number of cases countywide reached a frightening new milestone with over 10,000 new cases in a singe day. Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reported 10,528 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, more than double the daily infection rate from a week ago. The positivity rate seems to have stabilized at 11.2 percent.

There are 2,855 people currently hospitalized, 23 percent of whom are in intensive care units. This has brought the remaining unoccupied staffed adult ICU capacity to 10.3 percent, far below the threshold set by the state of California, triggering a new shutdown.

The stay-at-home order will have little additional effect on residents in Los Angeles County because of a similar order put into effect by county public health officials last Monday. However, now all neighboring counties will be under similar restrictions. Claremont business owners have complained recently that customers can simply go to Upland or Ontario to get the services they could not get here because San Bernardino County did not have a stay at home order.

Meanwhile, some Claremont restaurants are continuing to serve customers outdoors in defiance of the health order. Several readers have reached out to the COURIER to complain about these restaurants remaining open, including several who wrote letters to the editor.

Claremont’s Public Information Officer Bevin Handel said in a statement that the City of Claremont sent a request to Supervisor Hilda Solis asking for special consideration of the relatively low COVID-19 figures here asking that restrictions on Claremont’s restaurant community be lifted. Acting city Manage Adam Pirrie and acting Assistant City Manager Jamie Earl, met with Supervisor Solis’ staff last week and had a “productive talk.” However, due to the rapidly increasing case numbers, the request was denied.

The city of Claremont issued a statement on Saturday informing residents that the regional, southern California, stay-at-home order would begin Sunday at 11:59 p.m. and would be in effect at least three weeks. The city also stated that ICU wards at both Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center and San Antonio Regional Hospital were full.