The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health officials on Monday confirmed 12,617 new cases and 137 new deaths due to COVID-19 countywide, as Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital in Valencia reported a total of nine new fatalities since Friday.

The eight deaths on Saturday and Sunday were the most reported by the hospital in a two-day period since the pandemic began, and bring Henry Mayo’s COVID fatalities total to 92, according to spokesman Patrick Moody.

So far, the Santa Clarita Valley has tallied 20,121 COVID-19 cases – 916 new infections since Friday – and 147 deaths.

Since this surge began in early November, daily deaths increased in L.A. County by more than 1,000%. Deaths increased from 12 a day at that time to more than 200 last week, Public Health officials noted in their Monday daily brief.

Monday’s number of new cases and deaths is likely to reflect a reporting lag from over the weekend, officials said.

To date, Public Health has identified 932,697 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County and reported a total of 12,387 deaths.

There are 7,910 people with COVID-19 currently hospitalized and 22% of them are in the ICU. The county has gone from an average of 791 people hospitalized with COVID-19 two months ago to an average of around 8,000 patients. That is an increase of more than 1,000%.

Testing results are available for more than 5,020,000 individuals with 18% of people testing positive.

An average of 10 people per minute in L.A. County test positive for COVID-19 and these 15,000 individuals who test positive each day were capable of infecting others for two days before they had any symptoms or knew they were positive. At least 10-12% of people infected with the virus end up hospitalized at some point, and more than 1% of people diagnosed with COVID-19 end up dying.

L.A. County tops the list of the Top 50 Confirmed Cases by County tally by the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.

“We extend our deepest sympathies to everyone who is saddened, who is struggling with the loss of a loved one or friend who passed away from COVID-19. Our prayers and thoughts are with you always,” said Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health.

“We are approaching the one-year anniversary of our first known positive case in L.A. County,” she said. “We understand it’s been a long and exhausting journey these past 12 months. With the rollout of vaccinations, there is hope for a brighter future. However, we need to make sure everyone survives to benefit from the vaccine. Now is not the time to meet with friends at your home to watch the game. It is not the time to go for a walk without a mask. All it takes is one mistake and soon, five, 10 or 20 other people become infected – many of whom could be your friends, family members, or colleagues. This deadly virus continues to spread at alarming rates and the most important way to stop it in its tracks is to avoid interactions with others and protect ourselves at all times.”

Public Health officials said now is the time to avoid, as much as possible, contact with others that aren’t in your household. When you must go out, to work or for essential services, always wear a mask, keep your distance from others, wash your hands frequently, and bring sanitizing wipes with you to wipe down your cell phone, your car keys, your workstations, the door handles and anything you touch and anything other people are touching. This is the time to be extremely cautious and very careful.

“The damaging impact on our families and our local hospitals from this surge is the worst disaster our county has experienced in decades,” Ferrer said. “And, as with other terrifying situations, the end of the surge only happens when more people and businesses take control and do the right thing. The biggest single factor contributing to the surge comes down to the actions individuals are taking. We need everyone to do the right thing – to protect each other so we stop the transmission that is now occurring at epic proportions.”

See more SCV and L.A. County info later in this report.

California Monday Snapshot

Statewide, as of Sunday, January 10, the California Department of Public Health confirmed a total of 2,710,801 COVID-19 cases (up 39,839), with 29,965 deaths from the disease (up 264) since the pandemic began.

There are 21,668 confirmed hospitalizations and 4,868 ICU hospitalizations in the state, a slight downward trend.

As of January 10, local health departments have reported 76,116 confirmed positive cases in healthcare workers and 288 deaths statewide.

There have been 36,170,528 tests conducted in California. This represents an increase of 343,704 during the prior 24-hour reporting period.

The 7-day positivity rate is 14.2% and the 14-day positivity rate is 13.7%, reflecting a slight upward trend.

Numbers do not represent true day-over-day change as these results may include cases from prior to yesterday.

As of January 10, a total of 783,476 vaccine doses have been administered statewide. A total of 2,919,925 vaccine doses, which includes the first and second dose, has been shipped to local health departments and health care systems that have facilities in multiple counties.

See more California information later in this report.

Screencap from the Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering COVID-19 dashboard, showing COVID cases in the United States as of Monday afternoon, January 11, 2021.

Global Deaths Near 2 Million People; U.S. Deaths Top 375,000

Worldwide, 90,758,953 people have been infected by COVID-19 while 1,942,206 people have died of the virus as of 2:22 p.m. Monday Pacific Time, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

In the U.S., more than 22,557,929 Americans have been diagnosed with COVID-19. The number of people in the U.S. who have died due to the virus has now surpassed 375,576.

With 4.25% of the world’s population (328.2 million) and more than 20% of the confirmed COVID-19 cases, the U.S. also continues to lead the world in deaths.

By comparison, Brazil (population 209.5 million) is No. 2 in deaths with 203,580, and No. 3 in cases with 8,105,790. India (population 1.353 billion) is No. 2 in cases, with 10,466,595 confirmed infections and 151,160 deaths as of Monday afternoon.

Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital Monday Update

Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital reported nine new deaths since Friday, according to spokesman Patrick Moody. The hospital’s death toll now stands at 92 patients.

“The one death we reported on Saturday was from Friday, and the eight reported (Monday) were from Saturday and Sunday,” Moody said. The previous record for COVID-19 deaths in a two-day period was six, on the weekend of December 22-23 (one on Saturday and 5 on Sunday), he said.

Privacy laws prohibit the hospital from releasing the community of residence for patients who die there; that info is reported by the L.A. County Public Health COVID-19 dashboard, which generally lags 48 hours behind.

In the month of November, 8 COVID-19 patients died at Henry Mayo. In December, four times that many people — 34 — died at the hospital, Moody said, an average of more than one death per day.

As of Sunday, January 10, he confirmed there have been 20 deaths so far this month at Henry Mayo, an average of two a day.

Henry Mayo releases complete statistics weekly, usually on Wednesdays, unless one or more new deaths occur.

As of Monday, of the 16,230 people tested for COVID-19 at Henry Mayo to date, 2,921 tested positive, 19,184 were negative, 3 were pending, 98 patients were hospitalized in dedicated units receiving ICU-level care (six fewer than Friday), and a total of 809 COVID-19 patients have been treated and discharged so far, Moody said.

Discrepancies in the testing numbers at the hospital are due to some patients being tested multiple times, he said.

Due to staffing shortages and a large number of COVID-19 patient admissions, Henry Mayo on Monday, December 30 issued a “code triage” alert and put out a call for nurses and doctors to fill open staff positions.

Santa Clarita Valley Monday Update

As of 8 p.m. Saturday, the latest update of the L.A. County Public Health dashboard reported 138 deaths among Santa Clarita Valley residents since the pandemic began, but had not yet included the last 9 deaths reported by Henry Mayo.

Of the 147 SCV residents who have died, 119 lived in Santa Clarita, 6 in Castaic, 4 in Acton, 3 in unincorporated Canyon Country, 3 in Stevenson Ranch, 1 in unincorporated Bouquet Canyon, 1 in Val Verde, and 11 in communities not yet named.

Of the 19,205 confirmed COVID-19 cases reported to Public Health for the SCV to date, the community breakdown is as follows:

* City of Santa Clarita: 14,437

* Castaic: 3,163 (includes Pitchess Detention Center and North County Correctional Facility*)

* Stevenson Ranch: 7610

* Canyon Country (unincorporated portion): 590

* Acton: 329

* Val Verde: 225

* Agua Dulce: 169

* Valencia (unincorporated portion west of I-5): 126

* Saugus (unincorporated portion): 101

* Newhall (Unincorporated portion): 57

* Elizabeth Lake: 50

* Saugus/Canyon Country: 28

* Bouquet Canyon: 31

* Lake Hughes: 33

* Sand Canyon: 10

* San Francisquito/Bouquet Canyon: 11

*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.

L.A. County Vaccine Update: Who’s Getting it When

As of last week, hospitals received 220,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses and vaccinated 160,000 healthcare workers, about a 75% completion rate. Hospitals began providing their eligible staff second doses last week and more than 22,000 healthcare workers are now fully vaccinated.

Hospitals received 37,000 additional doses last week, in addition to the 60,000 remaining doses, to ensure they can continue to provide second doses this week. Hospitals have 74,000 confirmed vaccination appointments for their healthcare workers this week.

Starting Monday, per the state’s direction, Public Health expanded the vaccination program to include all healthcare workers within Tiers 2 and 3 in Phase 1A. More than 75 vaccination locations have been established to facilitate the administration of doses to individuals within these tiers.

To date, Public Health has opened more than 20 designated vaccination centers for frontline healthcare workers in Phase 1A and have made arrangements with multiple pharmacies to facilitate vaccinations for frontline healthcare workers and others within Phase 1A. Visit the Healthcare Provider Information Hub and scroll to the bottom of the page for details on how to make an appointment.

Public Health, in collaboration with the county Fire Department, Internal Services Department, and the Office of Emergency Management, is planning to open five large-capacity vaccination sites next week that will speed up vaccinations for frontline healthcare workers in Phase 1A.

Public Health Department staff are being reassigned in order to expand capabilities for this short-term effort. These five sites, in addition to our private partner sites, will allow us to complete 500,000 additional vaccinations among healthcare workers by the end of January.

As the county nears the end of Phase 1A at the end of January, we can look to starting vaccinations for groups within next phase 1B. The county expects to begin vaccinations for eligible individuals in Phase 1B, assuming we have ample vaccines allocated to the county, by early February. Following that, we expect to begin vaccinations for persons within Phase 1C in late March.

A full description of who qualifies for either Phase 1B or Phase 1C both include essential workers in some categories of work as well as people who are older, and in Phase 1C, people with underlying health conditions.

For more detailed information on COVID-19 vaccination plans in L.A. County and to sign up for a vaccination newsletter, visit www.VaccinateLACounty.com.

Public Health will host a COVID-19 Vaccine Town Hall on January 19 to allow residents to learn more details about the vaccine and our program to immunize as many people as possible in the coming weeks and months. The town hall will be streamed live on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube @lapublichealth. For more information, visit www.publichealth.lacounty.gov.

L.A. County Reports 3 New Cases of MIS-C in Kids

Over the weekend, Public Health reported three additional cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C). This brings the total number of cases of MIS-C in the county to 54 children, including one child death.

MIS-C is an inflammatory condition associated with COVID-19. Symptoms include a fever that does not go away, and inflamed body parts including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes, or gastrointestinal organs.

More information about MIS-C can be found here.

If you believe your child is displaying MIS-C symptoms, contact your primary care provider. If you do not have a primary care provider, dial 2-1-1 and L.A. County will help connect you to one.

COVID-19 affects people of all ages. Stay home and save lives.

COVID and Vulnerable Groups

While the surge has not impacted people experiencing homelessness to the same degree as others, there has been an increase in deaths among the homeless population. In early December, there were about 2 deaths a week among people experiencing homelessness and now for the seven-day period ending January 2, there were 14 deaths among the same group.

Another highly vulnerable group are people who are incarcerated. Since this pandemic began, county, state, and federal authorities have worked to help reduce the potential for outbreaks at prisons and jail facilities in Los Angeles County. During the previous surge last spring, Public Health received reports of 3 deaths in a week for people who were incarcerated. For the most recent weekly report ending January 2, there were 4 deaths over these seven days.

Every death is heartbreaking. One small glimmer of hope is that while overall deaths have increased dramatically over the past two months among L.A. County residents, the number of deaths among skilled nursing facilities has not increased at the same pace.
In the spring, about half of all deaths from COVID-19 occurred at skilled nursing facilities. Now, deaths at skilled nursing facilities represent less than 6% of all deaths from COVID-19.

A lot of effort has been spent to protect residents and staff at nursing facilities, especially after the high death rates that occurred back in the spring. The efforts to reduce transmission have helped reduce mortality, and now the important work is to continue all those efforts while completing vaccinations of residents and employees at long-term care facilities.

L.A. County Demographics — Deaths by Age Group
Of the 137 new deaths reported Monday, 55 people who died were over the age of 80, 48 people were between the ages of 65 and 79, 25 people were between the ages of 50 and 64, and seven people were between the ages of 30 and 49. Two deaths were reported by the City of Pasadena.

L.A. County Demographics — Cases by Age Group (Los Angeles County only — excluding Long Beach and Pasadena)

Young people are continuing to drive the surge of the virus’s community spread with disastrous results for our elderly.

* 0 to 4: 17123

* 5 to 11: 41474

* 12 to 17: 51574

* 18 to 29: 213592

* 30 to 49: 298254

* 50 to 64: 168339

* 65 to 79: 65658

* over 80: 24108

* Under Investigation 5708

Targeted Stay at Home Orders Issued by the State

The targeted Stay at Home Orders issued by the California Department of Public Health and adopted by the L.A. County Health Officer have been extended and remain in effect.

These orders will remain in effect as long as hospital ICU capacity remains below the 15% threshold established by the state. These orders prohibit gathering with non-household members, require everyone to stay at home as much as possible, reduce occupancy limits at businesses, and require masking and distancing whenever around others.

The Southern California region’s ICU capacity remains 0% as of Monday.

Outdoor exercise is encouraged as long as you remain distanced and wear a face covering when around others.

The Health Officer Orders also require that all non-essential business and activities cease between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. A complete list of the current safety modifications can be found online. These orders are in place for your safety and the safety of others – to reduce the potential for virus transmission.

L.A. County Public Health’s Reopening Protocols, COVID-19 Surveillance Interactive Dashboard, Roadmap to Recovery, Recovery Dashboard, and additional things you can do to protect yourself, your family and your community are on the Public Health website, www.publichealth.lacounty.gov.

California Regional Stay Home Order
Due to high rates of COVID-19 hospitalizations impacting the health care system, California is under a Limited Stay at Home Order. The order applies to all counties that are currently under the Regional Stay at Home Order and those in Tier One (Purple) of the Blueprint for a Safer Economy.

The Limited Stay at Home Order will expire after the Regional Stay Home Order has been terminated in all regions of the state.

Based on ICU data, four regions, San Joaquin Valley, Southern California, Greater Sacramento and the Bay Area are under the Regional Stay at Home Order as of Friday, Dec. 25.

Regions must remain under the Regional Stay at Home Order for at least three weeks and will be eligible to exit the order and return to the Blueprint for a Safer Economy only if ICU capacity projections for the following month are above or equal to 15%.

ICU capacity projections for regions that are eligible to exit the order are calculated daily based on four factors: current estimated regional ICU capacity available, the measure of current community transmission, current regional case rates, and the proportion of ICU cases being admitted. Decreasing community transmission and increasing the health system capacity can help a region’s projected ICU capacity so they can exit the order.

Current available ICU capacity by region as of Sunday:

* Bay Area: 0.7%

* Greater Sacramento Region: 9.7%

* Northern California: 35%

* San Joaquin Valley: 0.0%

* Southern California: 0.0%

The earliest dates that regions may be eligible to exit are:

* San Joaquin: Remains under order; four-week ICU capacity projections do not meet criteria to exit order.

* Southern California: Remains under order; four-week ICU capacity projections do not meet criteria to exit order.

* Greater Sacramento: Remains under order; four-week ICU capacity projections do not meet criteria to exit order.

* Bay Area: Remains under order; The region’s four-week ICU projections will be assessed in the coming days.

The state continues to support hospital systems and congregate care facilities across the state as ICU capacity continues to drop. The state is providing staff assistance, personal protective gear, durable medical equipment and supplies, and infection prevention technical assistance.

On Sunday, December 13, CDPH implemented a temporary waiver of nurse-to-patient ratios for intensive care units, step-down units, emergency medical services, and medical and surgical units. In addition, more than 300 additional medical staff has been deployed across the state.

Read the full Regional Stay Home Order and Supplement to the Order, and Frequently Asked Questions.

California Blueprint for a Safer Economy

Governor Newsom’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy imposes risk-based criteria on tightening and loosening COVID-19 allowable activities and expands the length of time between changes to assess how any movement affects the trajectory of the disease.

Californians can go to covid19.ca.gov to find out where their county falls and what activities are allowable in each county.

California Testing
More than 85 community testing sites offer free, confidential testing: Find a COVID-19 Testing Site.

The testing turnaround dashboard reports how long California patients are waiting for COVID-19 test results. California has worked to reduce testing turnaround times in recent weeks to help curb the spread of the virus.

During the week of December 27 to January 2, the average time patients waited for test results was 1.4 days. During this same time period, 60% of patients received test results in one day and 87% received them within two days. The testing turnaround time dashboard (PDF) is updated weekly.

All four tiers in the Testing Prioritization Guidance originally dated July 14, 2020, have equal priority for testing.

‘Safe Schools for All’ Plan
On Wednesday, December 30, Governor Newsom released his California’s “Safe Schools for All” plan, California’s framework to support schools to continue operating safely in person and to expand the number of schools safely resuming in-person instruction.

Crisis Care Continuum Guidelines
On December 28, the California Department of Public Health released an All Facilities Letter (AFL) on implementing the Crisis Care Continuum Guidelines issued in June. With the current surge in the pandemic, many hospitals are stretched to capacity.

The guidelines support facilities that are adapting their operations and space, including staff and other resources, to handle the surge as best as possible.

In addition to this support, it’s critical that all facilities are prepared for crisis care, during which times medical professionals may have to make hard choices about allocating treatments.

The state does not determine when a hospital implements crisis care standards: that’s determined by the on-the-ground conditions, hospital capacity, and available resources. The state’s role is to ensure all hospitals have done appropriate planning to make difficult decisions and to help hospitals remain in crisis care mode for as brief a period as possible.

For more information, see the December 28 AFL and the Crisis Care Continuum Guidelines (PDF) issued in June.

Hospital Surge Order

On January 5, the CDPH issued a public health order to reduce pressure on strained hospital systems.

To preserve services for the sickest patients, the hospital surge order requires some non-essential and non-life-threatening surgeries to be delayed in counties with 10% or less of ICU capacity under the Regional Stay at Home Order where the regional ICU capacity is at 0%, as it is in L.A. County.

Examples of procedures that may be delayed include carpal tunnel release and non-urgent spine surgeries. Surgeries for patients who have serious and urgent medical conditions will continue. Examples of procedures that will continue include serious cancer removal and necessary heart surgeries.

The order will remain in effect for at least three weeks and will continue until rescinded.

The order requires hospitals statewide to accept patient transfers from facilities that have implemented contingency or crisis care guidelines as long as those transfers can be done capably and safely.

Vaccinate All 58
The first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine are being administered to health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities. The state is working closely with community partners and stakeholders to help ensure the vaccine is distributed and administered equitably across California.

For more information, visit the CDPH COVID-19 Vaccine webpage and the Vaccinate All 58 webpage.

California Demographics: Health Equity Dashboard

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted existing inequities in health that are the result of structural racism and poverty, and the disproportionate prevalence of underlying conditions such as asthma and heart disease among Latinos and African Americans.

As part of its commitment to reduce health inequities and ensure the best outcomes for all Californians, the state has launched a Health Equity Dashboard on www.covid19.ca.gov/equity/ that tracks California’s health equity measure and data by race and ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender identity.

Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C)

Each week, the California Department of Public Health updates the number of cases of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) reported in the state.

As of January 4, 161 cases of MIS-C have been reported statewide, an increase of 2 over the previous week. To protect patient confidentiality in counties with fewer than 11 cases, we are not providing total counts at this time.

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. Parents should be aware of the signs and symptoms of MIS-C including fever that does not go away, abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, neck pain, rash, bloodshot eyes, or feeling tired. Contact your child’s doctor immediately if your child has these symptoms. Early diagnosis and treatment of patients are critical to preventing long-term complications.

Protect Yourself and Your Family

California is experiencing the fastest increase in cases we have seen yet – faster than what we experienced at the outset of the pandemic and this summer. If COVID-19 continues to spread at this rate, it could quickly overwhelm our health care system and lead to catastrophic outcomes.

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

* Staying home except for essential needs/activities following local and state public health guidelines when patronizing approved businesses. To the extent that sectors are re-opened, Californians may leave their homes to work at, patronize, or otherwise engage with those businesses, establishments or activities.

* Staying close to home, avoiding non-essential travel, and practicing self-quarantine for 14 days after arrival if you leave the state.

* Keeping interactions to people who live in your household.

* Wearing a cloth face mask when out in public

* Washing hands with soap and water for a minimum of 20 seconds

* Avoiding touching eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands

* Covering a cough or sneeze with your sleeve or disposable tissue. Wash your hands afterward

* Avoiding close contact with people who are sick

* Staying away from work, school, or other people if you become sick with respiratory symptoms like fever and cough

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

* Answering the call if a contact tracer from the CA COVID Team or local health department tries to connect.

* Following guidance from public health officials

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.

It’s important if someone thinks they could be positive for COVID-19 and are awaiting testing results to stay at home and act as if they are positive. This means self-isolating for 10 days and 72 hours after symptoms and fever subside.

If a person tests positive for COVID-19, they should plan on receiving a call from a public health specialist to discuss how to protect themselves and others, find out where they may have been, and who they were in close contact with while infectious.

California COVID-19 Data and Tools

A wide range of data and analysis guides California’s response to COVID-19. The state is making the data and its analytical tools available to researchers, scientists and the public at covid19.ca.gov.

* The Statewide COVID-19 Dashboard

* The California COVID-19 Assessment Tool (CalCAT)

* State Cases and Deaths Associated with COVID-19 by Age Group

* COVID-19 Race & Ethnicity Data

* COVID-19 Hospital Data and Case Statistics

* View additional datasets at the California Open Data Portal (including Testing Data, PPE Logistics Data, Hospital Data, Homeless Impact and more)

Consolidated guidance is available on the California Department of Public Health’s Guidance webpage.

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Always check with trusted sources for the latest accurate information about novel coronavirus (COVID-19):

* Los Angeles County Department of Public Health

* California Department of Public Health

* Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

* Spanish

* World Health Organization

* Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 Dashboard

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

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