This Sunday marks the 10th Sunday that we have not been able to meet on the Burnes campus for our Sunday morning worship service, and so I think this is a good Sunday for me to take some time to speak to you on behalf of our elders as to where things stand at the moment. And I actually intend to try to do that not only this Sunday but also next Sunday in the message as well. There's a lot that we have to say. To you as a congregation, as of Friday of this week, there have been almost 4.5 million cases of COVID-19 worldwide and approximately 300,000 reported deaths.
In the United States, we are approaching. 1.5 million cases of COVID-19 and around 85,000 reported deaths. On March 12th, there were no known cases of the coronavirus in Riverside County. Five weeks later, there were over 600, and today there are around 5600 cases of the coronavirus or of COVID-19.
In Riverside County and 242 deaths in Riverside County and to give you perspective on those numbers for our county, early models predicted over 60,000 cases of COVID-19 in Riverside County by this date that we find ourselves at right now, so the actual numbers. That we're looking at are considerably better and lower than the early projections had predicted, and we can rejoice in that while at the same time we grieve over those who have suffered as a result of COVID-19. To our knowledge, there has been only one case of COVID-19 in the Cornerstone congregation. And we are thankful to report that this member of our church is doing fine.
In fact, on Wednesday morning of this past week, I asked my wife how this sister in the church was doing, and literally 10 seconds. After I asked my wife that question, an email arrived from this sister wherein she said, and I quote. Thank you so much for praying for me while I had the coronavirus. Your prayers helped and comforted me....
