Temecula council hears information from health officials, declares local emergency

The Temecula City Council heard presentations from local health officials and declared a local state of emergency during its March 24 meeting, conducted entirely via teleconference due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Jose Arballo, spokesman for the Riverside County Department of Public Health, and Darlene Wetton, CEO of Temecula Valley Hospital, called into the council’s meeting addressed councilmembers. “As we started weeks ago, the majority of the cases were in the Coachella Valley, but just as we have expected, the cases have begun to stretch into the western part of the county,” Arballo told the council. As of Sunday, March 29, there were 14 cases in zip codes covering Temecula, and 37 in the southwestern Riverside County region overall. Eight people have died count