The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health confirmed Thursday 61 new cases and no additional deaths from COVID-19 in the Santa Clarita Valley within the last week.

Public Health is now reporting COVID-19 data every Thursday. This is the most recent data from June 29.

This new data brings Los Angeles County death totals to 36,510, case totals to 3,755,601 and Santa Clarita Valley case totals to 99,836 since March of 2020. SCV deaths from COVID-19 remain at 566.

Skilled Nursing Facilities Continue to Experience High Proportion of Outbreaks

Although the number of open outbreak investigations across Los Angeles County is near an all-time low, skilled nursing facilities continue to experience a high proportion of outbreaks when compared to other sectors. Given the vulnerability of skilled nursing facility residents associated with advanced age and serious health conditions, preventing the spread of COVID-19 remains of paramount importance.

The highest number of new outbreaks at skilled nursing facilities occurred at the end of 2021, with 94 outbreak investigations initiated the week of Dec. 26, 2021, coinciding with the dominance of the first Omicron strain. This number has been steadily declining and over the past two months the number of new skilled nursing facilities outbreaks opened within a one-week period has ranged from one to 10.

Cumulatively, over the course of the pandemic, there have been more than 70,000 COVID-19 cases at skilled nursing facilities, nearly evenly divided between residents and staff; more than 4,000 deaths have been reported among residents highlighting the vulnerability of individuals receiving care at the sites. The proportion of COVID deaths among skilled nursing facility residents has dropped steadily since vaccinations became available. In the summer of 2020, 58% of COVID deaths were among skilled nursing facility residents; in June of 2023, this number declined to 11%.

Currently, half of the 30 open outbreaks being investigated by Public Health are at skilled nursing facilities across the county. Data on COVID-19 in skilled nursing facilities is reported regularly at ph.lacounty.gov/SNFdashboard.

One of the reasons for the significant declines in deaths is the significant number of residents and staff who are vaccinated: 89% of residents and 98% of staff at skilled nursing facilities completed the initial series. Currently, 70 percent of all residents and 48 percent of staff are up-to-date on their vaccines, meaning they have received the bivalent dose as well.

To help reduce transmission of COVID-19 among people living and working in skilled nursing facilities, Public Health is continuing to implement equity-driven strategies, with public health measures in place to help prevent COVID-19 infection. Whenever a resident or staff member tests positive for COVID-19, testing is required for anyone with close contact with that person. That may range from a small group of close contacts or everyone in the facility if there is a high level of exposure. Facilities are required to provide education about COVID-19 vaccines and offer all staff and residents the most recent COVID-19 vaccine recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A Los Angeles County Health Officer Order requires that all health care workers are vaccinated against COVID-19, including one booster.

Local reporting requirements mandate that a skilled nursing facility report any suspected outbreak within 24 hours by calling 888-397-3993 or 213-240-7821, or by filling out an online form. This allows Public Health to track cases, help with investigations, and provide resources.

Visitors to skilled nursing facilities are no longer required by Public Health to be vaccinated or test negative prior to visiting residents. However, individual facilities are granted the discretion to have these requirements as part of their policy to protect residents and staff.

To provide support, Public Health’s mobile vaccine teams regularly hold clinics at skilled nursing facilities to administer the bivalent COVID-19 vaccine to residents and staff. Public Health also distributes free COVID-19 test kits to facilities on a bi-weekly basis. To date, over 8.4 million tests have been distributed to County skilled nursing facilities. This summer, Public Health will offer free educational forums about infection prevention and control for skilled nursing facility staff.

Family members and friends should also take steps to prevent infection when visiting loved ones at skilled nursing facilities. If a person has any signs of respiratory illness, including coughing, sore throat, fever or headache, they should delay their visit until symptoms have passed. Taking a COVID-19 home test before a visit can provide extra assurance. The bivalent vaccine provides an additional layer of protection.

Free tests are available throughout Los Angeles County, including at libraries, through community based organizations, and for each person in a household covered by insurance, eight free tests are available per month at pharmacies. More information is available at ph.lacounty.gov/COVIDTests. If a person has a question about testing, possible symptoms, or has tested positive and needs telehealth services for treatment, the Public Health Call Center is available 7 days a week, from 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. at 1-833-540-0473.

The CDC has replaced COVID-19 Community Levels with Hospital Admission Levels, which can help individuals and communities decide which prevention actions they can take based on the most recent information. Los Angeles County is in the Low Hospital Admission Level with 2.7 weekly COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people, reported on June 26 for the seven-day period ending June 21.

Public Health reports COVID-19 data weekly. The following table shows case, wastewater, emergency department, hospitalization, and death data in Los Angeles County over the past four weeks. All metrics remain stable at levels of low concern.

1) Case counts are an underrepresentation of the true number of infections, largely due to home tests which are not reported to DPH. Despite this, the trend in reported case counts from week to week is still an indicator of overall trends in transmission.

2) Weekly case and death counts represent the number of cases and deaths reported for the week ending each Tuesday. The date a case/death is reported by DPH is not the same as the date of testing or death.

3) Time periods covered by each metric: wastewater = week ending each Saturday, with a one-week lag; ED data = week ending each Sunday; hospitalizations = week ending each Saturday.

4) Data for past weeks is subject to change in future reports.

A wide range of data and dashboards on COVID-19 from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health are available on the Public Health website at http://www.publichealth.lacounty.gov including:

COVID-19 Locations & Demographics (data by demographic characteristics and geography, active outbreaks, and citations)

 – COVID-19 Response Plan

 – COVID-19 Vaccinations

 – Skilled Nursing Facility Metrics

Always check with trusted sources for the latest accurate information about novel coronavirus:

 – Los Angeles County Department of Public Health: http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/media/Coronavirus/

– California Department of Public Health: https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/Immunization/nCOV2019.aspx

– Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html

– CDC Spanishhttps://espanol.cdc.gov/enes/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html

– World Health Organization https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus

– LA County residents can also call 2-1-1

William S. Hart Union High School District COVID-19 Dashboard

Since the State of Emergency has been lifted, the William S. Hart Union High School District will no longer be posting dashboard information.

Santa Clarita Valley Thursday Update

As of 4 p.m. Thursday, the L.A. County Public Health dashboard reported no additional deaths from COVID-19 in the Santa Clarita Valley, keeping the total number of deaths in the SCV at 566.

NOTE: As of Dec. 20, 2022, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health switched to a new geocoding process to improve the accuracy and completeness of geocoded data. Geocoding is the process of assigning an address to specific geographic coordinates (latitude/longitude). As a result, approximately 1,500 cases (0.04%) were removed from the cumulative count as they were determined to be out of jurisdiction with the improved geocoding. The switch to this improved process also resulted in minor changes to cumulative case/death counts by Supervisor District, Service Planning Area, city/community, and area poverty categories.

The following is the community breakdown per L.A. County’s dashboard:

Santa Clarita: 461

Castaic: 30 (revised from 33)

Acton: 19 (revised from 19)

Stevenson Ranch: 19

Unincorporated Canyon Country: 11

Agua Dulce: 8

Val Verde: 6

Elizabeth Lake: 4

Lake Hughes: 2

Valencia: 2

Unincorporated Bouquet Canyon: 2

Newhall: 1

Unincorporated Saugus/Canyon Country: 1

SCV Cases

Of the 99,836 cases reported to Public Health for the SCV to date, the community breakdown is as follows:

Santa Clarita: 73,758

Castaic: 9,678

Stevenson Ranch: 6,012

Canyon Country: 3,786

Acton: 2,024

Val Verde: 1,225

Agua Dulce: 997

Valencia: 939

Saugus: 347

Elizabeth Lake: 288

Bouquet Canyon: 207

Lake Hughes: 204

Saugus/Canyon Country: 135

Newhall: 105

Sand Canyon: 63

San Francisquito: 44

Placerita Canyon: 24

*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.

California Thursday By the Numbers

While daily press releases are no longer available from CDPH, data will continue to be updated weekly on the state’s COVID-19 dashboard.​

As of June 29, California has confirmed a total of 102,350 COVID-19 deaths.

Vaccines administered updated June 29, at 9:36 a.m., with data from June 28.

Deaths and tests updated June 29, at 9:36 a.m. with data from June 27.

For more California data, click [here].