The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health on Wednesday confirmed 22 new deaths and 1,843 new positive cases of COVID-19, the county’s highest number of new cases not associated with backlog cases reported since late August.

With 56 new cases reported since yesterday, the SCV has now tallied 7,550 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 76 deaths from the virus since March 11, when the World Health Organization declared the pandemic.

L.A. County’s new cases surpass the high daily numbers seen in the last two weeks, Public Health officials note.

The county has counted 7,117 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and 313,562 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of the county to date. Upon further investigation, 62 cases and two deaths reported earlier was not a county resident.

“To the many people mourning loved ones and friends who have passed away from COVID-19, we send you our heartfelt condolences,” said Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health.

“I thank all of our businesses, schools and residents who continue to make COVID-19 safety measures part of their daily routine,” Ferrer said. “Unfortunately, the continued significant increase in (new) cases reflects many instances where basic prevention measures were lacking. Unless we can all get back to protecting each other, our recovery will stall.”

There are 817 people currently hospitalized with COVID-19 countywide, and 29% of them are in the ICU.

Wednesday’s number of people hospitalized is a slight increase from daily counts in late September and early October and is the first time the daily number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 has exceeded 800 since mid-September.

And while this is still significantly lower than the peak of more than 2,200 daily hospitalizations in mid-July, the increase in hospitalizations is most likely associated with the continued increase in cases over the past two weeks.

Public Health will continue to monitor the number of people hospitalized closely because it represents how many people are currently seriously ill from the virus and the potential demand put on our hospitals to care for COVID-19 patients.

Test results are available for more than 3,182,000 county residents, with 9% of all people testing positive.

See more L.A. County updates later in this report.

California Wednesday Snapshot

Statewide, as of Tuesday, November 3, the California Department of Public Health confirmed a total of 940,010 COVID-19 cases (up 5,338), with 17,752 deaths from the disease (up 66).

There are 2,669 confirmed hospitalizations and 779 ICU hospitalizations in the state, an upward trend.

California’s 7-day positivity rate is 3.3% and the 14-day positivity rate is 3.3%, an upward trend.

As of November 1, local health departments have reported 45,173 confirmed positive cases in healthcare workers and 206 deaths statewide.

There have been 19,181,012 COVID-19 tests conducted in California, an increase of 106,091 over the prior 24-hour reporting period.

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

See more California info later in this report.

COVID Worldwide: U.S.A. Maintains Global Lead in Cases, Deaths

Worldwide, 47,925,055 people have been infected by COVID-19 while 1,221,489 people have died as of 1:24 Wednesday afternoon Pacific Time, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Screencap from the Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering COVID-19 dashboard, showing COVID cases reported by health agencies in the United States as of Monday afternoon, November 2, 2020.

More than 9,465,646 Americans have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, while the number of people in the U.S. who have died due to the virus has surpassed 233,535.

More daily cases are being reported in the U.S. now than at any time since the pandemic began, as the graph shows.

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, No. 2 Brazil (population 209.5 million) has a death toll of 160,496 and slowing. India (population 1.353 billion) is No. 2 in cases, with 8,313,876 confirmed cases and 123,611 deaths as of Wednesday afternoon.

Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital Wednesday Update

Henry Mayo releases complete statistics weekly, generally on Wednesdays, according to spokesman Patrick Moody. Due to technical issues at Henry Mayo, SCVNews received a partial update for this week.

As of Wednesday, October 25, of the 10,109 people tested at Henry Mayo to date, 1,027 tested positive, 12,066 were negative, 14 were pending. As of Wednesday, November 4, 13 patients were hospitalized in a dedicated unit receiving ICU-level care (down two from the previous Wednesday), and a total of 315 COVID-19 patients have been treated and discharged so far.

The number of deaths at Henry Mayo stands at 32, 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.

Santa Clarita Valley Wednesday Update

As of 8 p.m. Monday, November 2, the latest update to its COVID-19 data dashboard, L.A. County Public Health reported 74 deaths in the Santa Clarita Valley since the pandemic began, but had still not yet added two new deaths at Henry Mayo over the weekend.

Of the 76 SCV residents who have died to date, 62 lived in the city of Santa Clarita, 4 in Castaic, 2 in Acton, 3 in Stevenson Ranch, 1 in unincorporated Bouquet Canyon, 1 in Val Verde, 1 in unincorporated Valencia, and 2 in communities not yet named.

Of the 7,550 confirmed COVID-19 cases reported to Public Health for the SCV to date, the community breakdown is as follows:

City of Santa Clarita: 4,569

Castaic: 2,207 (includes Pitchess Detention Center and North County Correctional Facility*)

Stevenson Ranch: 206

Canyon Country (unincorporated portion): 177

Val Verde: 104

Acton: 87

Valencia (unincorporated portion west of I-5): 53

Saugus (unincorporated portion): 39

Agua Dulce: 38

Newhall (Unincorporated portion): 27

Saugus/Canyon Country: 11

Bouquet Canyon: 10

Elizabeth Lake: 9

Sand Canyon: 7

Lake Hughes: 5

San Francisquito/Couquet Canyon: 1

*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.

Daily Case Numbers Keep County in Tier 1

“I thank all of our businesses, schools and residents who continue to make COVID-19 safety measures part of their daily routine,” L.A. County Public Health’s Barbara Ferrer said. “Unfortunately, the continued significant increase in cases reflects many instances where basic prevention measures were lacking. Unless we can all get back to protecting each other, our recovery will stall.”

L.A. County’s daily case numbers continue to keep the county in the state’s most restrictive purple tier (Tier 1) in the Blueprint for a Safer Economy.

The county’s adjusted case rate is 7.5 new cases per 100,000 people. This is a decrease from the 8.0 adjusted case rate reported last week. The county must reduce its daily number of new cases to 7 or fewer new cases per 100,000 people for two consecutive weeks in order to move to the next less restrictive Tier 2.

The county’s overall test positivity rate is 4.0% which meets the threshold for Tier 3 and the test positivity rate in our lowest-resourced areas increased from 6.2% to 6.8% which still meets the threshold for Tier 2.

Nov. 9: Town Hall on COVID-19 and Schools

Public Health officials, along with the Los Angeles County Office of Education, will host a virtual Parent Town Hall Event on COVID-19 and Schools on Monday, November 9, from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The discussion will include steps taken to protect children returning back to school, the reopening process, school waivers, and include a live Q&A with parents. For additional information, view here.

Schools throughout the county have reopened for specialized services for students with high-needs, waiver programs for students in grades TK-2, childcare, and modified youth sports programs.

As of November 2, Public Health has received 210 applications from schools for waivers to open for grades TK-2 in-person learning; 134 applications from private schools, 71 applications from public schools, and five applications from charter schools.

To date, waiver approvals have been issued to 29 schools. An additional 45 schools have been submitted to the State for final approval.

For more information, visit www.publichealth.lacounty.gov.

In addition, 1,463 schools have opted to offer in-person learning for high-need students; 73% are public schools, 16% are charter schools, and 11% are private schools. More than 65,000 students and more than 28,000 staff have returned for on-site learning. A list of schools open for K-12 specialized services is available online.

More L.A. County Demographics: Age

Of the 22 new deaths reported Wednesday, eight people that passed away were over the age of 80 years old, seven people who died were between the ages of 65 and 79 years old, five people who died were between the ages of 50 and 64 years old, one person who died was between the ages of 30 and 49 years old, and one person who died was between the ages of 18 and 29 years old.

Fifteen people who died had underlying health conditions including seven people over the age of 80, five people between the ages of 65 and 79 years old, two people between the ages of 50 and 64 years old, and one person between the ages of 18 and 29 years old.

Ninety-three percent of the people who have died from COVID-19 had underlying health conditions.

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

* 0 to 4 5230

* 5 to 11 11304

* 12 to 17 13911

* 18 to 29 73633

* 30 to 49 101648

* 50 to 64 57104

* 65 to 79 22543

* over 80 9997

* Under Investigation 1847

More L.A. County Demographics: Race/Ethnicity

Of those who died, information about race and ethnicity is available for 6,707 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.

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 Blueprint for a Safer Economy

Governor Gavin 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 October 18 to October 24, the average time patients waited for test results was 1.3 days. During this same time period, 66 percent of patients received test results in 1 day and 90 percent received them within 2 days. The testing turnaround time dashboard (PDF) is updated weekly.

As of September 23, 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.

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 more than one-and-a-half times their population representation across all adult age categories. For Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, overall numbers are low, but almost double 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.

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 November 2, 126 cases of MIS-C have been reported statewide, seven more than the previous week.

To protect patient confidentiality in counties with fewer than 11 cases, CDPH is 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

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 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

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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