The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health confirmed Sunday 940 new cases of COVID-19 and 14 new deaths due to the virus countywide, with a total of 1,081 cases reported in the Santa Clarita Valley since the pandemic began.

The county reported 18 new COVID-19 cases in the SCV, but no new deaths. To date, 18 people have died of the virus in the valley (15 in Santa Clarita, 1 in Acton, 1 in Castaic, and 1 in a community not yet named).

To date, Public Health has reported 44,988 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County, and a total of 2,104 deaths.

Ninety-three percent of people who died had underlying health conditions.

California has 92,710 confirmed cases and 3,774 deaths from COVID-19 as of May 23, with 2,980 confirmed hospitalizations and 1,071 ICU hospitalizations.

As of May 23, local health departments have reported 9,272 confirmed positive cases in health care workers and 51 deaths statewide.

Santa Clarita Valley Sunday Update
Of the 1,081 cases reported to Public Health for the SCV to date, the community breakdown is as follows:

City of Santa Clarita: 659

Castaic: 303 (includes Pitchess Detention Center and North County Correctional Facility)

Canyon Country (unincorporated portion): 35

Stevenson Ranch: 32

Val Verde: 19

Acton: 11

Valencia (unincorporated portion west of I-5): 7

Agua Dulce: 6

Saugus (unincorporated portion): 4

Elizabeth Lake: 3

Lake Hughes: 1

Newhall Unincorporated portion): 1

Henry Mayo Sunday Update
Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital is now releasing numbers on a weekly basis (Wednesdays), unless there is a drastic change in the number of cases or a death has been confirmed, hospital spokesman Patrick Moody said.

As of Wednesday, May 20, of the 1,332 persons tested at Henry Mayo to date, 197 tested positive, 1,245 were negative, 35 were pending and 14 patients were hospitalized in a dedicated unit receiving ICU-level care. A total of 68 COVID-19 patients have been discharged so far.

Discrepancies in the testing numbers are due to some patients being tested more than once, he said.

Eight of the SCV’s 18 fatalities to date have occurred at Henry Mayo, Moody confirmed Monday.

L.A. County Demographics
Ten of the 14 people who died in L.A. County were over the age of 65 years old and two people who died were between the ages of 41 to 65 years old. Nine people had underlying health conditions including eight people over the age of 65 years old and one person between the ages of 41 to 65 years old. One death was reported by the City of Long Beach and one death by the City of Pasadena.

Of those who died, information about race and ethnicity is available for 1,941 people (99 percent of the cases reported by Public Health) 40% of deaths occurred among Latino/Latinx residents, 29% among White residents, 17% among Asian residents, 12% among African American residents, 1% among Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander residents and 1% among residents identifying with other races. Upon further investigation, seven cases reported earlier were not LA County residents.

L.A. County Testing
As of Sunday, 6,177 people who tested positive for COVID-19 (14% of positive cases) have been hospitalized at some point during their illness. There are 1,490 people who are currently hospitalized, 28% of these people are in the ICU and 19% are on ventilators. Testing capacity continues to increase in L.A. County, with testing results available for nearly 465,000 individuals and 8% of people testing positive.

“For the people who are mourning a loved one who has passed away from COVID-19, we think of you every day and we wish you healing and peace,” said Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health. “Together, the L.A. County Community has made progress in slowing the spread of COVID-19, as demonstrated in the decreasing numbers of daily hospitalizations and deaths. Please remember, the job we continue to do to protect each other will affect how many new cases, new hospitalizations and new deaths we will see several weeks from now.”

Health Officer Order
The current Health Officer Order replaces the previous Health Officer Order and allows for the reopening of beach bike paths and parking lots, indoor mall curbside service, and select vehicle parades.

Retailers remain closed to public entry along with beach piers, and public and private gatherings of any number of people outside of a single household unit are still not permitted.

The Health Officer Order continues to require specific higher-risk businesses to remain closed and prohibit dining in at restaurants.

Restaurants are still allowed to serve food to customer via delivery, take-out or drive-thru.

Everyone must continue to follow distancing and infection control protocols, stay at least six feet apart and wear a clean cloth face covering that securely covers both your nose and mouth when in contact with other people not in your household.

The best protection against COVID-19 continues to be to wash your hands frequently, avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands, self-isolate if you are sick, and to practice physical distancing and wear a clean face covering when in contact with others from outside your household.

People who have underlying health conditions remain at much greater risk for serious illness from COVID-19, so it will continue to be very important for the county’s vulnerable residents to stay at home as much as possible, to have groceries and medicine delivered, and to call their providers immediately if they have even mild symptoms.

L.A. County is in stage two of the five-stage Roadmap to Recovery and until the final stage five is reached, Health Officer Orders and directives will continue to ensure that we slow spread of COVID-19 to prevent an overwhelming surge of COVID-19 cases at healthcare facilities.

The Health Officer Order, 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 Demographics
Overall, for adults 18 and older, Latinos, African Americans and Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are dying at disproportionately higher levels. The proportion of COVID-19 deaths in African Americans is about double their population representation across all adult age categories.

For Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, overall numbers are low, but there is nearly a four-fold difference between the proportion of COVID-19 deaths and their population representation. More males are dying from COVID-19 than females, in line with national trends.

More information is available at COVID-19 Race and Ethnicity Data.

Testing in California
As testing capacity continues to increase across the state, the California Department of Public Health is working to expand access to COVID-19 testing. Testing should be used for medical evaluation of persons with symptoms of COVID-19 as well as for efforts by public health agencies and essential employers to prevent and control the spread of COVID-19.

As of May 23, there have been 1,582,745 tests conducted in California and reported to the California Department of Public Health. This represents an increase of 67,439 tests over the prior 24-hour reporting period. These numbers include data from commercial, private and academic labs, including Quest, LabCorp, Kaiser, University of California and Stanford, and the 25 state and county health labs currently testing.

New Data Portal
The state has launched a new, user-friendly data portal at COVID-19 Statewide Update that tracks COVID-19 cases statewide and by county, gender, age and ethnicity. The portal also outlines statewide hospitalizations and testing efforts. The data presented on the portal will be updated daily and will include additional information as it is available.