The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health on Wednesday confirmed 11 new deaths and 513 new cases of 2019 novel coronavirus COVID-19 among county residents, with at least 56 cases reported to date in the Santa Clarita Valley.

As of Wednesday, the county has confirmed 50 active cases in the city of Santa Clarita, three in Castaic, and between one and four each in unincorporated areas of Canyon Country, Stevenson Ranch and Valencia (areas with populations fewer than 25,000 where the number of cases is “suppressed” by the county citing privacy reasons), bringing the SCV total to between 56 and 65.

At Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital in Valencia, 33 patients tested positive Wednesday, five more than Tuesday, hospital spokesperson Patrick Moody told SCVNews.

“We have nine patients in the hospital, one more than yesterday,” Moody said. He added that a total of 241 patients have been tested for COVID-19 at Henry Mayo to date.

Nine of the 11 deaths reported in the county Wednesday occurred in people over the age of 65, one person was between 41-65 years old, and one person was between 18-40 years old.

Additional information regarding some of the new cases is pending further investigation. Over the last 48 hours, there have been 1,061 new cases, up from 890 the previous 48-hour period.

To date, Public Health has identified 3,518 cases across all areas of L.A. County, including 65 deaths.

Upon further investigation, 11 cases reported earlier were not LA County residents. As of Wednesday, 733 people who tested positive for COVID-19 (20% of positive cases) have been hospitalized at some point during their illness.

Emerging evidence suggests that there may be a significant number of people infected with COVID-19 who are asymptomatic and capable of spreading the virus to others.

New guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that we need to think about using universal precautions all the time – assuming that each of us can infect others even when we aren’t sick.

“Our sadness is not diminished by the daily frequency of announced deaths related to COVID-19, and reminds us of our need to work together to protect each other,” said Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Los Angeles County Public Health Director.

“The hard truth is we have some difficult days ahead as we work tirelessly to flatten the curve of this horrible virus,” Ferrer said. “Though the end may not be as close as we’d like, if we all continue to do our part to slow the spread by staying home, social distancing, self-isolating when we are positive or presumed positive, and self-quarantining if we are close contacts of a positive case, we will get to the end of the COVID-19 crisis more quickly, together.”

Public Health has issued the following guidance for people with mild illness during this time of increased spread:

If you are mildly sick, stay home for at least seven days and until 72 hours after being fever and symptom-free. Call your doctor if you are concerned and/or your symptoms worsen. Individuals who are elderly, have underlying health conditions or pregnant should consider contacting their providers earlier when they are sick.

Additional things you can do to protect yourself, your family and your community are on the Public Health website, www.publichealth.lacounty.gov.

You may also visit:

– 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://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index-sp.html

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

– LA County residents can also call 2-1-1.