The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health confirmed 10 new deaths throughout L.A. County, 932 new cases countywide and 13 new cases in the Santa Clarita Valley.

This new data brings Los Angeles County death totals to 35,970, county case totals to 3,723,386 and Santa Clarita Valley case totals to 98,910 since March of 2020. SCV deaths from COVID-19 remain at 551.

The 7-day average positivity rate is 4.2%.

There are 413 people with COVID-19 currently hospitalized. Testing results are available for more than 12,973,000 individuals, with 25% of people testing positive.

County Promotes Sensible Strategies to Reduce Dangers Associated with COVID-19

With the lifting of county, state and federal COVID-19 emergency orders, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health continues to ensure easy access to free vaccines, boosters, tests and therapeutics. With changes in federal and state guidance, Los Angeles County urges residents to maintain sensible precautions to minimize disruptions at worksites, schools and health care facilities caused by COVID-19 outbreaks.

Most worksites across the county (including schools) must adhere to the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (CAL/OSHA) requirements which state employers must:

Ensure employees that test positive are not at the worksite for at least five days. Employees can return to work between days six through 10 after testing positive if they have not had a fever for a 24-hour period without using fever-reducing medication and other symptoms are resolved or improving. They must wear a mask around others for a total of 10 days after testing positive for COVID-19.

Identify and notify employees who were exposed to someone with COVID-19 during the virus’s infectious period.

Make testing available to all employees at no cost who had close contact with an infected person at the workplace.

Ensure all employees who had close contact with a known COVID-19 case, and remain at work, take a COVID-19 test within 3-5 days after the close contact in the event of an outbreak.
All worksites are required to report to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health clusters of three or more cases over 14 days; this allows Public Health to assist worksites to reduce additional transmission that can lead to significant disruptions and possible severe illness. Case clusters can be reported to Public Health at 1-888-397-3993.

“I would like to extend my deepest sympathies and sincere condolences to those who have lost a loved one to COVID-19,” said Dr. Barbara Ferrer, Ph.D., M.P.H., M.Ed., Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. “With continued stable COVID metrics, we’ll align our guidance with the reduced risk facing many residents while acknowledging that COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths are ongoing and many in Los Angeles County are still feeling the impacts of the pandemic. CAL/OSHA is clear that worksites need to be safe by protecting workers from transmission of COVID-19. We encourage everyone to be mindful of worksite rules and do their best to not transmit this virus to others by isolating when infected and using masks and tests appropriately when exposed to the virus. Together our efforts provide support to those who are most vulnerable and minimize the disruptions to school, work and our daily lives.”

Beginning in April, in alignment with both the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), Public Health will change to weekly reporting of COVID-19 case, hospitalization and death data on Thursdays. The last day of daily reporting will be Tuesday, March 28.

The 7-day average case count for COVID-19 dropped nearly 18% from the week prior from 726 last week to an average of 593 this week. Reported average daily deaths remained stable at about 12 deaths reported per day. The 7-day average of new COVID-19 positive hospital admissions is 68 this week, down from 76 last week. The 7-day average for test positivity remained stable at about 4%.

Los Angeles County remains in the CDC’s Low COVID-19 Community Level for the 10th consecutive week. This includes a 7-day case rate of 41 new cases per 100,000 people, a decrease from the week prior. The 7-day total for new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people is currently 4.5, a decrease from last week’s rate of 5.4. And the 7-day average of the proportion of staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients is now 2.6%, down from the week prior.

For more information about vaccinations and boosters, testing and treatment, visit VaccinateLACounty.com or VacunateLosAngeles.com (en español) or call 1-833-540-0473 seven days a week between 8 a.m. and 8:30 p.m.

If residents have COVID-19, medication is available even if residents are uninsured and under-insured. Telehealth services to connect residents to COVID-19 medication can be reached at 833-540-0473, 8 a.m. – 8:30 p.m.; 7 days a week. These medications must be started within five days of symptom onset and are proven to greatly reduce hospitalizations and deaths.

A wide range of data and dashboards on COVID-19 from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health are available on the Public Health website at http://www.publichealth.lacounty.gov.

A wide range of data and dashboards on COVID-19 from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health are available on the Public Health website at http://www.publichealth.lacounty.gov including:

COVID-19 Daily Data (cases, deaths, testing, testing positivity rate, mortality rate, and hospitalizations)

Gender, Age, Race/Ethnicity and City/Community Cases and Deaths

Contact Tracing Metrics

Skilled Nursing Facility Metrics

Citations due to Health Officer Order Noncompliance

Outbreaks:

Residential Congregate Settings

Non-Residential Settings

Homeless Service Settings

Always check with trusted sources for the latest accurate information about novel coronavirus:

Los Angeles County Department of Public Health: http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/media/Coronavirus/

California Department of Public Health:

https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/Immunization/nCOV2019.aspx

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html

Spanish https://espanol.cdc.gov/enes/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html

World Health Organization https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus

L.A. County residents can also call 2-1-1

To keep workplaces and schools open, residents and workers are asked to:

– Get tested to help reduce the spread, especially if you traveled for the holidays, have had a possible exposure, or have symptoms, or are gathering with people not in your household

– Adhere to masking requirements when indoors or at crowded outdoor spaces, regardless of vaccination status

– Residents are legally required to be isolated if they have a positive COVID test result and vaccinated close contacts with symptoms and unvaccinated close contacts need to be quarantined.

For information on where you can get tested, please visit www.covid19.lacounty.gov/testing/.

For updated isolation and quarantine guidance, please visit www.publichealth.lacounty.gov.

COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective and are recommended for everyone 5 years old and older to help protect against COVID-19. Vaccinations are always free and open to eligible residents and workers regardless of immigration status. Appointments are not needed at all Public Health vaccination sites and many community sites where first, second, and third doses are available.

To find a vaccination site near you, or to make an appointment, please visit:

www.VaccinateLACounty.com (English) or

www.VacunateLosAngeles.com (Spanish).

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

The William S. Hart Union High School District provides ongoing information to our community regarding COVID-19 cases while maintaining confidentiality for our students and staff. The COVID-19 case data below is updated regularly to indicate any currently confirmed COVID-19 positive case in staff members or students by school site. The data below is specific to individuals who have been physically present on a District campus within 14 days of receiving a positive COVID-19 test. The District, in conjunction with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, conducts contact tracing and directly notifies and provides resources for parents of students identified as close contacts (6 feet or less for 15 cumulative minutes or more).

Note: To see the communication process in the event of a positive COVID-19 case, visit https://www.hartdistrict.org/apps/pages/covid-19dashboard.

Schools Community Dashboard

Student Dashboard

Staff Dashboard

Santa Clarita Valley Friday Update

As of 4 p.m. Friday, the L.A. County Public Health dashboard reported no additional deaths, leaving the total number of deaths in the SCV at 551.

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: 450

Castaic: 30 (revised from 33)

Acton: 18 (revised from 19)

Stevenson Ranch: 18

Unincorporated Canyon Country: 10

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 98,910 cases reported to Public Health for the SCV to date, the community breakdown is as follows:

Santa Clarita: 73,086

Castaic: 9,590

Stevenson Ranch: 5,949

Canyon Country: 3,738

Acton: 2,007

Val Verde: 1,212

Agua Dulce: 988

Valencia: 932

Saugus: 348

Elizabeth Lake: 286

Bouquet Canyon: 205

Lake Hughes: 203

Saugus/Canyon Country: 129

Newhall: 105

Sand Canyon: 63

San Francisquito: 45

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 Friday

The California Department of Public Health now updates their numbers on Thursdays. The information below is from the most recent data released Thursday, March 23.

Vaccinations

– 88,411,976 total vaccines administered.

– 72.8% of the population has been vaccinated with a primary series.

– 7,627 people a day are receiving COVID-19 vaccination (average daily dose count over 7 days).

Cases

– California has 11,176,967 confirmed cases to date.

– Average case count is 2,083 (average daily case count over 7 days).

– During January 2023, unvaccinated people were 2.6 times more likely to get COVID-19 than people who were vaccinated with at least a primary series.

Testing

– The testing positivity rate is 5% (average rate over 7 days).

Hospitalizations

– There are 1,823 hospitalizations statewide.

– There are 214 ICU patients statewide.

– During January 2023, unvaccinated people were 2.6 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than people who were vaccinated with at least a primary series.

Deaths

– There have been 101,019 COVID-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

– COVID-19 claims the lives of 20 Californians each day (average daily death count over 7 days).

– During January 2023, unvaccinated people were 2.9 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than people who were vaccinated with at least a primary series.

Health Care Workers

As of March 15, local health departments have reported 192,552 confirmed positive cases in health care workers and 602 deaths statewide.

Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C). This is the most recent data reported:

As of Dec. 19, there have been 1,048 cases of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) reported statewide. MIS-C is a rare inflammatory condition associated with COVID-19 that can damage multiple organ systems. MIS-C can require hospitalization and be life threatening.

Slow the Spread: Get Vaccinated and Boosted for COVID-19

The risk for COVID-19 exposure and infection continues as a number of Californians remain unvaccinated and unboosted.

Real-world evidence continues to show that the vaccine is preventing severe illness, hospitalization, and death. Public health officials urge Californians to get vaccinated and boosted as soon as possible.

It is recommended that every individual six months of age and older receive their primary COVID-19 vaccine series and booster dose.

Your Actions Save Lives

Protect yourself, family, friends and your community by following these prevention measures:

Keep California Healthy
Protect yourself, family, friends and your community by following these prevention measures:

– If you are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 (fever, cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, muscle or body aches), call your health care provider.

– If you believe you have been exposed, get tested. Free, confidential testing is available statewide.

– Keep gatherings small and outdoors and follow state and local public health guidance.

– Wear a mask and get the most out of masking – an effective mask has both good fit and good filtration.

– Wash hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.

– Delay non-essential travel outside of California until you are fully vaccinated. Follow California’s travel advisory.

– Avoid close contact with people who are sick and stay home from work and school if you feel ill.

– Add your phone to the fight by signing up for COVID-19 exposure notifications from CA Notify.

– Answer the call or text if a contact tracer from the CA COVID Team or your local health department tries to connect.

Additional data and udpates:

Tracking COVID-19 in California

State Dashboard – Daily COVID-19 data

County Map – Local data, including tier status and ICU capacity

Data and Tools – Models and dashboards for researchers, scientists, and the public

Blueprint for a Safer Economy– Data for establishing tier status

COVID-19 Race & Ethnicity Data – Weekly updated Race & Ethnicity data

Cases and Deaths by Age Group – Weekly updated Deaths by Age Group data

Health Equity Dashboard – See how COVID-19 highlights existing inequities in health

Tracking Variants – Data on the variants California is currently monitoring

Safe Schools for All Hub – Information about safe in-person instruction

School Districts Reopening Map – data on public schools and reported outbreaks

Always check with trusted sources for the latest accurate information about novel coronavirus:

– Los Angeles County Department of Public Health

– California Department of Public Health

– Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

– Spanish

– World Health Organization

L.A. County residents can also call 2-1-1.

What to Do if You Think You’re Sick
Call ahead: If you are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 (fever, cough or shortness of breath), call your health care provider before seeking medical care so that appropriate precautions can be taken. More than 85 community testing sites also offer free, confidential testing: Find a COVID-19 Testing Site.

For more information about what Californians can do to prevent the spread of COVID-19, visit Coronavirus (COVID-19) in California.

California continues to issue guidance on preparing and protecting California from COVID-19. Consolidated guidance is available on the California Department of Public Health’s Guidance webpage.