The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health confirmed Thursday 19 new deaths, including the 74th death in the Santa Clarita Valley and 1,745 new cases of COVID-19, including 7,267 total cases in the Santa Clarita Valley.

This is the highest number of new cases reported countywide since late-August not associated with backlog cases.

To date, Public Health identified 305,070 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County and a total of 7,044 deaths. Upon further investigation, 44 cases and 15 deaths reported earlier were not L.A. County residents.

There are 750 people with COVID-19 currently hospitalized and 31% of these people are in the ICU. The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations has remained stable for most of September and October.

Schools have reopened for specialized services for students with high-needs, waiver programs for students in grades TK-2, childcare, and modified youth sports programs. They are required to follow school re-opening protocols for infection control, distancing, and cohorting to minimize COVID-19 spread. Additionally, Public Health has a dedicated team of specialists providing technical assistance and disease management to all schools that are re-opened or re-opening, and every school that re-opens receives a site visit from Public Health.

Parents play a vital part in the shared responsibility to prevent COVID-19 spread in schools and communities. To date, nearly 30,000 COVID-19 cases have occurred in children under 18 years old in L.A. County. If a child’s school has reopened for one of the approved purposes, the decision to send a child back to school rests with each family. It is essential for families to follow the Department of Public Health’s safety guidance to reduce the risk of getting and spreading COVID-19. The necessary steps include:

– Keeping your child at home if she or he is sick and or has any symptoms of COVID-19, or if your child has been in contact with someone with COVID-19; symptoms to look out for in your child are fever, new onset of cough, diarrhea/vomiting/abdominal pain, and new onset of severe headache;

– Instructing your child to always wear a mask while at school and when in public outside of your home;

– Developing good hand hygiene habits so that your child frequently washes their hands, particularly before eating and after toileting;

– Teaching your child to stay 6 feet apart from others who aren’t in your household.

There are also actions that parents can take to increase their child’s safety at school:

– Find out if your child’s school does a symptom screening daily before children and staff enter school; they should be requiring this step for the entire school community.

– Ask your child about their experience at school regarding distance between students, mask-wearing, and hand washing.

– Model the behaviors you wish to see your child demonstrate when they go to school; these behaviors include wearing a face covering when outside the home, physical distancing, and hand washing.

– Ask the school to share its safety protocols and other plans for how it will handle cases and exposure that might occur at the school and ask how the school will communicate with parents if that happens.

– Be part of school efforts that promote compliance with safety directives.

California Thursday Snapshot
Statewide, the California Department of Public Health confirmed a total of 912,904, with 17,541 deaths from the disease. There are 2,358 confirmed hospitalizations and 657 ICU hospitalizations in California.

Numbers may not represent true day-over-day change as reporting of test results can be delayed.

There were 4,191 newly recorded confirmed cases Wednesday. Numbers do not represent true day-over-day change as these results include cases from prior to yesterday.

The 7-day positivity rate is 3.3% and the 14-day positivity rate is 3.0%.

There have been 18,323,771 tests conducted in California. This represents an increase of 100,175 over the prior 24-hour reporting period.

As case numbers continue to rise in California, the total number of individuals who will have serious outcomes will also increase.

New Testing Turnaround Time Dashboard
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 Oct. 11 – Oct. 17, the average time patients waited for test results was 1.2 days. During this same time period, 69 percent of patients received test results in 1 day and 91 percent received them within two days. The testing turnaround time dashboard (PDF) is updated weekly.

As of Sept. 23, 2020, California’s testing capacity and turnaround time have improved. As a result and until further notice, all four tiers in the Testing Prioritization Guidance originally dated July 14, 2020 will have equal priority for testing.

Health Care Worker Infection Rates
As of Oct. 28, local health departments have reported 44,048 confirmed positive cases in health care workers and 205 deaths statewide.

Santa Clarita Valley Thursday Update
As of 5:00 p.m. Thursday, the L.A. County Public Health dashboard, reported SCV’s 74th death from COVID-19. Of the 74 SCV residents who have died since the pandemic began, 62 lived in the city of Santa Clarita, 4 in Castaic, 3 in Stevenson Ranch, 2 in Acton, 1 in unincorporated Bouquet Canyon, 1 in Val Verde, 1 in unincorporated Valencia.

Of the 7,267 cases reported to Public Health for the SCV to date, the community breakdown is as follows:

City of Santa Clarita: 4,338

Castaic: 2,175 (includes Pitchess Detention Center and North County Correctional Facility*)

Stevenson Ranch: 198

Canyon Country (unincorporated portion): 174

Val Verde: 103

Acton: 85

Valencia (unincorporated portion west of I-5): 52

Saugus (unincorporated portion): 38

Agua Dulce: 36

Newhall (Unincorporated portion): 26

Saugus/Canyon Country: 11

Bouquet Canyon: 10

Elizabeth Lake: 9

Sand Canyon: 7

Lake Hughes: 5

*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.

Henry Mayo Thursday Update
As of Wednesday, Oct. 28, of the 10,109 people tested at Henry Mayo to date, 1,027 tested positive, 12,066 were negative, 14 were pending, 15 patients were hospitalized in a dedicated unit receiving ICU-level care (up three from the previous Wednesday), and a total of 299 COVID-19 patients have been treated and discharged so far, hospital spokesman Patrick Moody said.

The number of people who have died of COVID-19 at Henry Mayo stood at 30, Moody said. Privacy laws prohibit the hospital from releasing the community of residence for patients who die; that info is reported by L.A. County Public Health.

Discrepancies in the testing numbers at the hospital are due to some patients being tested multiple times. “Often a single patient is tested more than once,” he said.

Henry Mayo releases statistics weekly, generally on Wednesdays, unless there is a drastic change in the number of cases or a COVID-related death has been confirmed.

L.A. County

“To everyone who is facing the sorrow of losing a loved one to COVID-19, our hearts go out to all of you,” said Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health. “The high numbers of daily cases are very concerning because, as we have seen in the past, increases in cases lead to increases in hospitalizations and deaths. These increases impede our ability to move forward with re-opening additional sectors and getting more children back to school. As individuals, we get to choose whether to party or help our economy recover; we get to choose whether to protect others from our respiratory droplets or infect others who may go on to need hospital care or even die. What we don’t get to do, is sit on the sidelines. We have an awesome opportunity to slow the spread with every decision we make about how we interact with others.”

Of the 19 new deaths reported today, five people that passed away were over the age of 80 years old, eight people who died were between the ages of 65 and 79 years old, two people who died were between the ages of 50 and 64 years old, and one person who died was between the ages of 30 and 49 years old. Thirteen people who died had underlying health conditions including five people over the age of 80, six people between the ages of 65 and 79 years old, one person between the ages of 50 and 64 years old, and one person between the ages of 30 and 49 years old. Three deaths were reported by the City of Long Beach.

Ninety-three percent of the people who died from COVID-19 had underlying health conditions. Of those who died, information about race and ethnicity is available for 6,635 people (99 percent of the cases reported by Public Health); 52% of deaths occurred among Latino/Latinx residents, 23% among White residents, 14% among Asian residents, 10% among African American/Black residents, less than 1% among Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander residents and 1% among residents identifying with other races.

Testing results are available for nearly 3,080,000 individuals with 9% of all people testing positive. The 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 Thursday

Blueprint for a Safer Economy

Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled the Blueprint for a Safer Economy, a statewide plan for reducing COVID-19 and keeping Californians healthy and safe. The plan 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.

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.

Popular links include:

– 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)

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 Oct. 26, 119 cases of MIS-C have been reported statewide. 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 is critical to preventing long-term complications.

Racial Demographics – A More Complete Picture
The California Department of Public Health is committed to health equity and collecting more detailed racial and ethnic data that will provide additional understanding for determining future action. Health outcomes are affected by forces including structural racism, poverty and the disproportionate prevalence of underlying conditions such as asthma and heart disease among Latinos and African American Californians. Only by looking at the full picture can we understand how to ensure the best outcomes for all Californians.

The differences in health outcomes related to COVID-19 are most stark in COVID-19 deaths. We have nearly complete data on race and ethnicity for COVID-19 deaths, and we are seeing the following trends. 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 about three-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.

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.

Your Actions Save Lives
Every person has a role to play. Protecting yourself and your family comes down to common sense:

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

– Practicing social distancing.

– 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.

– Following guidance from public health officials.

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.