The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health confirmed Thursday 63 new cases and no new 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 May 4.

This new data brings Los Angeles County death totals to 36,247, county case totals to 3,738,769 and Santa Clarita Valley case totals to 99,345 since March of 2020. SCV deaths from COVID-19 remain at 557.

Stay Up-to-Date on Your Vaccines as Summer Approaches

As many residents look forward to graduations, vacations and other summertime activities, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health is asking everyone to be up to date with their COVID-19 vaccinations. For everyone 6 years and older, being up to date means they have had one dose of the bivalent vaccine. For those who are over 65 years old and/or immunocompromised, a second dose is available to provide even greater protection.

Bivalent vaccines are free and readily available to residents throughout Los Angeles County, including people who have difficulties leaving their home to get to a vaccination site.

Public Health helps thousands of residents get and stay up to date on their COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters with its Homebound Vaccination Program. Through this free service, Public Health has vaccinated 8,786 residents and administered 14,500 doses since March 2021. Nearly 60% of the clients vaccinated by the homebound program lived in high-risk ZIP codes for poor COVID-19 outcomes. More than 80% of the people who have used this service are ages 60 and older.

The Homebound Vaccination Program is free and easy to use. Residents are asked to call 1-833-540-0473 between 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. every day of the week to request an appointment or go online to ph.lacounty.gov/vaxathome or ph.lacounty.gov/vacunacionencasa (en español). Public Health partners with community-based mobile health care providers, who will call to schedule an appointment, typically within two weeks, and show up at the resident’s home to vaccinate them, their caregivers and any household/family members upon request.

The bivalent vaccine has been shown to provide ample protection against hospitalization and severe illness as it targets more recent COVID-19 Omicron strains. When comparing individuals who are unvaccinated to individuals who received the bivalent vaccine, for the 90-day period ending April 10, people who were unvaccinated were nearly five times more likely to be hospitalized and nearly six times more likely to die from COVID-19. Even for people who were previously vaccinated, the bivalent vaccine still provides additional protection. During the same period, people with a dose of the bivalent vaccine were one-and-a-half times less likely to be hospitalized from a COVID-19 infection and nearly two times less likely to die than those vaccinated without a bivalent dose.

People who are ages 65 and older or immunocompromised are eligible for second bivalent boosters. Older adults can now receive a second bivalent booster four months after their first bivalent dose; and people who are moderately or severely immunocompromised can receive a second booster two months after their first. As of April 30, more than 372,000 adults 65 and older in Los Angeles County are now eligible for a second bivalent booster. Everyone ages 6 years and older, including those who are unvaccinated, should get one bivalent vaccine to be considered up to date. Some children ages 6 months to 5 years may also need one bivalent vaccine, depending on the number of doses they’ve previously received and their age.

COVID-19 numbers remain stable and low in Los Angeles County; however, in past years, Los Angeles County has seen a rise in COVID-19 transmission in late spring and summer months as the school year ends and summer festivities start. Public Health officials remain optimistic a summer uptick in cases can be minimized so long as residents take sensible precautions.

Testing can provide an important layer of protection by detecting asymptomatic infection or verifying that the symptoms are attributed to a COVID infection. This is especially important with the new XBB.1.16 strain, which may be associated with COVID-19 symptoms that could be easily confused with allergies.

Free COVID-19 at-home tests can be picked up at libraries and community organizations across Los Angeles County and at Public Health vaccination sites or ordered through the federal government. At this time, most insurance plans are still either providing free tests or reimbursing for the cost of up to eight purchases tests each month. More information on testing can be found at ph.lacounty.gov/COVIDtests.

XBB.1.5 remains the dominant COVID strain in Los Angeles County accounting for 73% of sequenced specimens for the week ending April 8. The second most dominant strain was XBB.1.9.1, accounting for 6.5% of sequenced specimens. Public Health continues to monitor new strains, including XBB.1.16. Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that XBB.1.16 makes up 10.3% of cases in California and surrounding states. In LA County, XBB.1.16 accounted for 2.4% of recently sequenced specimens.

The weekly reported case count for COVID-19 remained relatively stable at 2,533 compared to 2,659 last week. The 7-day average number of COVID hospitalizations is 266 this week, similar to the 275 reported last week. Reported weekly deaths also remained stable at 51 deaths this week; this is similar to the 54 deaths reported last week.

Among reported deaths this week is one pediatric death. This marks a solemn milestone, the 25th pediatric death in Los Angeles County from COVID-19.

Los Angeles County remains in the CDC’s Low COVID-19 Community Level for the 16th consecutive week. This includes a weekly reported case rate of 25 new cases per 100,000 people. The 7-day total for new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people is currently 3.1. And the 7-day average of the proportion of staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients is now 1.5%.

As of Tuesday, May 2, there have been a total of 36,247 deaths in Los Angeles County.

Public Health is now reporting COVID data weekly. The following table shows the weekly reported case counts, average number of daily hospitalizations, and weekly reported death counts in Los Angeles County over the past four weeks.

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 3 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 557.

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: 455

Castaic: 30 (revised from 33)

Acton: 18 (revised from 19)

Stevenson Ranch: 18

Unincorporated Canyon Country: 11

Agua Dulce: 7

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 99,345 cases reported to Public Health for the SCV to date, the community breakdown is as follows:

Santa Clarita: 73,419

Castaic: 9,610

Stevenson Ranch: 5,982

Canyon Country: 3,761

Acton: 2,013

Val Verde: 1,221

Agua Dulce: 992

Valencia: 934

Saugus: 345

Elizabeth Lake: 288

Bouquet Canyon: 206

Lake Hughes: 203

Saugus/Canyon Country: 131

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

With the recent end of the California COVID-19 State of Emergency, CDPH will sunset weekly COVID-19 data news releases. All data will continue to be updated regularly on the state’s COVID-19 data dashboard on Thursdays.​

Update for May 4