Officials from Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital reported two additional deaths Thursday, bringing the total number of COVID-19 deaths to 165 since the onset of the pandemic, hospital spokesman Patrick Moody confirmed.

Currently, there are zero tests pending, 22 patients in the hospital, and a total of 1,491 patients who have been treated and discharged since the pandemic began.

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.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health confirmed Thursday 28 new deaths and 2,023 new cases of COVID-19 countywide, with 35,022 total cases in the Santa Clarita Valley.

Of the 28 new deaths reported Thursday, four people who passed away were over the age of 80, six people who died were between the ages of 65 and 79, eight people who died were between the ages of 50 and 64, eight people who died were between the ages of 30 and 49, and one person who died was between the ages of 18 and 29. One death was reported by the city of Pasadena. To date, Public Health identified 1,439,011 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County and a total of 25,775 deaths.

There are 1,185 people with COVID-19 currently hospitalized and 30% of these people are in the ICU. Testing results are available for more than 8,414,000 individuals with 16% of people testing positive. Thursday’s test positivity rate is 1.6%.

Case Rates Among Children

While case rates increased among children in all a
ge groups between mid-July and mid-August, over the last three weeks, cases declined in all children age groups by 40%. The current case rate for 12 to 17 year-olds is 132 new cases per 100,000 teens; for 5 to 11 year-olds the case rate is now 141 new cases per 100,000 children; and for children 0 to 4, the case rate is 88 per 100,000 children.

With most of the 1.5 million children in grades K-12 now having returned to in-person instruction, Public Health is encouraged that case rates have not increased. The decreases are similar to the decreases seen among adult residents and occurred as many schools reopened with testing, masking, infection control and outbreak management protocols in place.

With the heightened awareness of vaccine effectiveness, Public Health’s highest priority is to increase vaccination rates among those eligible teens unvaccinated. As of September 12, 63% of LA County teens 12 to 15 years old had received at least one dose of vaccine, and 53% were fully vaccinated. Among teens 16 to 17 years old, 70% had received at least one dose, and 61% were fully vaccinated.

Since August 16, 1,957 schools have reported at least one case to Public Health. School programs reporting one case increased initially from 467 during the first week of school to 562 during the second week of school; reports of single cases have declined over the most recent two weeks of monitoring to 414 sites. Sites reporting two cases remained at a similar level for the first three weeks of school at an average of nearly 250 sites, however the number of sites reporting two cases declined to 139 sites this week. Sites reporting three or more cases have been declining since the first week of school from 441 sites to 127 sites. There has been a 43% decrease in the number of schools reporting three or more cases between the most recent two weeks of monitoring.

In K-12 school settings countywide, between Aug. 15 and Sept. 13, 7,995 student cases and 1,1193 staff cases were reported, with the vast majority occurring at LAUSD, which tests everyone weekly. With more than 1.5 million students and 175,000 staff countywide (by last year’s counts), 0.5% of the student body and 0.7% of staff have become infected since school districts reopened. This is slightly higher than the 0.4% rate of infection experienced overall in the County. Given the massive testing of asymptomatic individuals at schools, this very low rate of infection affirms the safety provided to students and staff at schools.

Close contacts that are not fully vaccinated, are subject to quarantine for up to 10 days after exposure to a case. Between Aug. 15 and Sept. 13, 15,655 student contacts and 1,056 staff contacts have been reported, with an additional 22,650 close contacts of unknown status reported, most of them suspected to be students. In total, nearly 2% of all staff and students countywide have been identified as a close contact of a case. Data to date indicates that very few of the identified close contacts have subsequently tested positive. As of last week, among the almost 30,000 people quarantined, 63 tested positive; this amounts to an overall secondary attack rate of 0.2%.

After reviewing four weeks’ worth of data related to cases, close contacts, and outbreaks at schools and with relatively low transmission at schools, Public Health is offering a modified quarantine option for K-12 students exposed to COVID-19 at school under certain circumstances. Schools and school districts are not required to offer a modified quarantine option to their students and may choose to continue with the customary quarantine requirements.

Modified quarantine allows, under certain conditions, an unvaccinated student with an exposure to a confirmed COVID-19 case to continue in-person instruction at school during their quarantine, while restricting their activities outside of the classroom. Those who qualify for modified quarantine include close contacts whose exposure took place at school or a school supervised activity when both the contact and the case were masked during the entire exposure period, and the close contacts are not part of a defined outbreak. The exposed student must remain asymptomatic for the duration of quarantine, stay home except for classroom and educational instruction activities, and continue to wear a mask indoors, outdoors, and on the school bus, except for when they are eating and drinking. While eating and drinking, they must maintain at least a six-foot distance from others; this should ideally take place outdoors. Students in modified quarantine must also be tested twice a week during their quarantine: the first test should be on day one through two after exposure, while the second test should be five days after exposure. Modified quarantine ends when a second test done at least five days after exposure is negative. In this scenario, the exposed student can end modified quarantine after day seven.

**More from Los Angeles County Public Health further below**

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.

Student Dashboard:

Student Dashboard: The COVID-19 case data is updated regularly to indicate any currently confirmed COVID-19 positive cases in students by school site.

Staff Dashboard

Staff Dashboard: The COVID-19 case data is updated regularly to indicate any currently confirmed COVID-19 positive cases in staff by school site.

Santa Clarita Valley Thursday Update
As of 5:00 p.m. Thursday, the L.A. County Public Health dashboard remained unchanged from Wednesday with a total of 325 COVID-19 deaths in the Santa Clarita Valley since the pandemic began.

The following is the community breakdown of the 325 SCV residents who have died, according to the L.A. County dashboard:

275 in Santa Clarita

18 in Castaic

9 in Acton

7 in Stevenson Ranch

6 in unincorporated Canyon Country

3 in Agua Dulce

2 in Val Verde

1 in unincorporated Bouquet Canyon

1 in Elizabeth Lake

1 in Newhall

1 in unincorporated Saugus/Canyon Country

1 in Valencia

0 in Lake Hughes (**revised from 1)

SCV Cases

Of the 35,022 cases reported to Public Health for the SCV to date, the community breakdown is as follows:

City of Santa Clarita: 25,752

* Castaic: 4,297

Stevenson Ranch: 1,601

Canyon Country (unincorporated portion): 1,100

Acton: 688

Val Verde: 412

Agua Dulce: 378

Valencia (unincorporated portion west of I-5): 262

Saugus (unincorporated portion): 160

Elizabeth Lake: 99

Newhall (Unincorporated portion): 70

Bouquet Canyon: 62

Lake Hughes: 51

Saugus/Canyon Country: 46

Sand Canyon: 22

San Francisquito/Bouquet Canyon: 18

Placerita Canyon: 4

*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

“To the families and friends experiencing the sorrow of losing a loved one due to COVID-19, we send you our deepest sympathies,” said Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health. “Safety at schools is amplified many-fold when vaccination coverage is very high, as widespread vaccination dramatically reduces transmission at schools, after school activities, community events and at home. Vaccinated teens are about eight times less likely to get infected than unvaccinated teens. Vaccinating teens protects the teens themselves and also protects the friends and family members with whom they share so much of their out-of-school time. Vaccinating teens also has the advantage of protecting younger children at school with whom they come in contact and who cannot be vaccinated. And because vaccinating teens also reduces transmission at school, it decreases the likelihood of outbreaks causing disruptions in learning. One major advantage of being vaccinated is that fully vaccinated students are more likely to stay in school after an exposure. That’s because our quarantine guidance currently exempts asymptomatic fully vaccinated individuals from quarantine. Along with our school partners, we’re working hard to ensure it’s easy for teens to get vaccinated.”

Anyone 12 and older living or working in L.A. County can get vaccinated against COVID-19. Many vaccination sites across the county, including all the County-run sites, are also offering third doses of vaccine to eligible immunocompromised people. Vaccinations are always free and open to eligible residents and workers regardless of immigration status.

To find a vaccination site near you, to make an appointment at vaccination sites, and much more, Visit: www.VaccinateLACounty.com (English) and www.VacunateLosAngeles.com (Spanish) If you don’t have internet access, can’t use a computer, or you’re over 65, you can call 1-833-540-0473 for help finding an appointment or scheduling a home-visit if you are homebound. Vaccinations are always free and open to eligible residents and workers regardless of immigration status.

County Reopening Protocols, COVID-19 Vaccine Dashboard, COVID-19 Surveillance Interactive Dashboard, Roadmap to Recovery, Recovery Dashboard, and additional actions you can take to protect yourself, your family and your community are on the Public Health website, www.publichealth.lacounty.gov.

California Thursday

California Department of Public Health confirmed Thursday 4,387,926 cases and 67,187 deaths to date. There are 6,553 confirmed hospitalizations and 1,815 ICU hospitalizations in the state.

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

There were 7,360 newly reported confirmed cases Wednesday.

Cases are occurring largely among unvaccinated populations. See the data for vaccinated and unvaccinated cases.

– For the week of August 29 – September 4, the average case rate among unvaccinated Californians age 16 or older is 71.03 per 100,000 per day and the average case rate among vaccinated Californians age 16 or older is significantly lower at 8.9 per 100,000 per day.

– The great majority of new cases are among unvaccinated individuals. The rate among the unvaccinated is 8 times the rate among the vaccinated.

The 7-day positivity rate is 3.4%.

There have been 87,787,458 tests conducted in California. This represents an increase of 288,542 during the prior 24-hour reporting period.

As of Sept.16, according to the CDC, 82.3% of eligible Californians have received at least one dose. Providers have reported to CDPH that a total of 48,219,430 vaccine doses have been administered statewide. Numbers do not represent true day-to-day change as reporting may be delayed. For more vaccination data, visit the COVID-19 Vaccine Data Dashboard.

Health Care Workers

As of Sept. 15, local health departments have reported 123,614 confirmed positive cases in health care workers and 498 deaths statewide.

Stop the Spread: Get Vaccinated for COVID-19

The risk for COVID-19 exposure and infection continues as a number of Californians remain unvaccinated. With the emergence of the more transmissible Delta variant, there is a renewed urgency to get all eligible Californians vaccinated as quickly as possible and complete their two-dose vaccination process if they are receiving Pfizer or Moderna.

CDPH is reminding unvaccinated Californians that the COVID-19 vaccine is safe, free and provides excellent protection from severe COVID-19 illness, including the Delta variant, hospitalization, and death.

Individuals aged 12+ are eligible for vaccination. Visit myturn.ca.gov to make an appointment. Individuals aged 17 and younger may need the consent of a parent or legal guardian for vaccination. Visit Vaccinate All 58 to learn more about the safe and effective vaccines available.

Testing Turnaround Time

The testing turnaround time dashboard reports how long California patients are waiting for COVID-19 test results. During the week of Sept. 5 to Sept. 11, the average time patients waited for test results was 1.3 days. During this same time period, 70% of patients received test results in one day and 90% received them within two days.

Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C)

As of Sept. 13, there have been 603 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.

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

– Get vaccinated when it’s your turn. Californians age 16+ are eligible to make an appointment.

– 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.