The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health confirmed one new death from COVID-19 and 88 new cases in the Santa Clarita Valley within the last week.

Public Health is now reporting COVID-19 data every Thursday.

This new data brings Los Angeles County death totals to 36,106, county case totals to 3,730,372 and Santa Clarita Valley case totals to 99,035 since March of 2020. SCV deaths from COVID-19 rise to 554.

Even though fewer people are getting severely sick from COVID-19, adults over 65 years old continue to be hospitalized at significantly higher rates than younger people and, of everyone hospitalized for COVID-19 in Los Angeles County, more than 1 in 10 people required highly specialized medical attention in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

While many people have taken precautions that have reduced the overall impact of COVID-19 in Los Angeles County, including being up to date on vaccines, there are still a sizable number of older people and those with underlying health conditions experiencing severe illness if infected.

On April 11, of the 338 people hospitalized with COVID-19 across Los Angeles County, 38 individuals required care in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), including 25 patients on ventilators.

Older residents are hospitalized and admitted to the ICU with COVID-19 at much higher rates than their younger counterparts. Over the most recent 12 weeks, adults 80 years of age and older were 17 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 and 24 times more likely to be admitted to the ICU with COVID-19 compared to adults 30-49 years of age. Residents ages 65-79 years old were 11 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 and more than six times more likely to be admitted to the ICU with COVID-19, when compared to residents ages 30-49.

COVID-19 also remains the leading infectious cause of death in Los Angeles County with over eight deaths reported on average each day last week. In 2022, COVID was the third leading cause of death in the county, behind only coronary heart disease and Alzheimer’s Disease.

Local data confirm that the updated booster provides needed protection against new strains, helping to reduce severe illness at a greater rate than the primary series and monovalent booster alone. People who received the updated bivalent booster are hospitalized at a rate that is five times lower and die at a rate that is six times lower than people who are unvaccinated.

Vaccination locations and appointments can be found at VaccinateLACounty.com. For residents who have difficulties leaving their home, Public Health offers free in-home COVID-19 vaccine and booster appointments. Appointments may be booked at ph.lacounty.gov/vaxathome or by calling 1-833-540-0473.

For people who get sick with COVID-19, medicines are available to reduce the severity of the illness. COVID-19 medications are available with a prescription. Individuals who don’t have access to a provider or can’t reach their own provider in a timely manner can get medication if eligible by calling Public Health’s telehealth services at 1-833-540-0473. That phone line is open from 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. every day.

Variant data continue to keep Public Health officials optimistic about the overall COVID-19 situation in Los Angeles County. Looking at the most recent set of sequenced specimens, XBB.1.5 remains the dominant strain locally, as it has been since early February, currently accounting for 88% of tested specimens. The currently circulating COVID-19 strains in Los Angeles County are all descendants of Omicron and we are not seeing new variants or a rapid rise of any new strains.

Meanwhile, sewer shed data also confirms that COVID-19 is circulating at manageable levels in the county. Current wastewater concentrations, as of April 1, are substantially lower than what we saw during the peak of the most recent winter and they remain stable at this lower level. The average concentration level is 14% of the winter peak, indicating that, although transmission is still occurring, there is low concern for rapid spread of the virus.

The weekly reported case count for COVID-19 increased 11% from the week prior from 2,731 last week to 3,023 this week, although the overall trend remains stable. Reported weekly deaths increased slightly from 53 last week to 59 this week. The 7-day average number of COVID hospitalizations is 348 this week, a decrease from 378 last week.

Los Angeles County remains in the CDC’s Low COVID-19 Community Level for the 13th consecutive week. This includes a weekly reported case rate of 30 new cases per 100,000 people. The 7-day total for new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people is currently 3.3. And the 7-day average of the proportion of staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients is now 2.0%.

Public Health is now reporting COVID data weekly. The following table shows the weekly reported case counts, average number of daily hospitalizations and weekly reported death counts in Los Angeles County over the past four weeks.

William S. Hart Union High School District COVID-19 Dashboard

Since the State of Emergency has been lifted, the William S. Hart Union High School District will no longer be posting dashboard information.

Santa Clarita Valley Thursday Update

As of 5 p.m. Thursday, the L.A. County Public Health dashboard reported an additional death from COVID-19 in the city of Santa Clarita, bringing the total number of deaths in the SCV to 554.

NOTE: As of Dec. 20, 2022, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health switched to a new geocoding process to improve the accuracy and completeness of geocoded data. Geocoding is the process of assigning an address to specific geographic coordinates (latitude/longitude). As a result, approximately 1,500 cases (0.04%) were removed from the cumulative count as they were determined to be out of jurisdiction with the improved geocoding. The switch to this improved process also resulted in minor changes to cumulative case/death counts by Supervisor District, Service Planning Area, city/community, and area poverty categories.

The following is the community breakdown per L.A. County’s dashboard:

Santa Clarita: 452

Castaic: 30 (revised from 33)

Acton: 18 (revised from 19)

Stevenson Ranch: 18

Unincorporated Canyon Country: 11

Agua Dulce: 7

Val Verde: 6

Elizabeth Lake: 4

Lake Hughes: 2

Valencia: 2

Unincorporated Bouquet Canyon: 2

Newhall: 1

Unincorporated Saugus/Canyon Country: 1

SCV Cases

Of the 99,123 cases reported to Public Health for the SCV to date, the community breakdown is as follows:

Santa Clarita: 73,247

Castaic: 9,599

Stevenson Ranch: 5,965

Canyon Country: 3,755

Acton: 2,010

Val Verde: 1,220

Agua Dulce: 990

Valencia: 933

Saugus: 343

Elizabeth Lake: 287

Bouquet Canyon: 205

Lake Hughes: 203

Saugus/Canyon Country: 130

Newhall: 105

Sand Canyon: 63

San Francisquito: 44

Placerita Canyon: 24

*Note: The county is unable to break out separate numbers for Castaic and PDC/NCCF because the county uses geotagging software that cannot be changed at this time, according to officials. Click here for the LASD COVID-19 dashboard.

California Thursday By the Numbers

With the recent end of the California COVID-19 State of Emergency, CDPH will sunset weekly COVID-19 data news releases. All data will continue to be updated regularly on the state’s COVID-19 data dashboard on Thursdays.​ However, here is the most recent California COVID-19 stats as of Thursday, April 13.