The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health confirmed Thursday 157 new cases and one additional death 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 Aug. 3.

This new data brings Los Angeles County death totals to 36,585, case totals to 3,765,692 and Santa Clarita Valley case totals to 100,254 since March of 2020. SCV deaths from COVID-19 remain at 569.

Hospitalizations Rise Slightly

As COVID-19 hospitalizations and emergency department visits increase slightly in Los Angeles County, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) continues to ensure that residents have easy access to sensible protections, such as testing and treatment, to help reduce the spread of infection and prevent people from becoming very sick from COVID-19.

With reported COVID-19 hospitalizations rising slightly in Los Angeles County, Public Health officials remind residents to reduce risk from a COVID-19 infection by testing if exposed or experiencing symptoms such as fever or chills, coughing, runny nose, fatigue and body aches, and staying home and seeking treatment as soon as possible after the onset of symptoms.

Testing can reduce the spread of COVID-19 to others, especially people who are vulnerable to severe illness from the virus. Free at-home tests are widely available through community partners and at libraries and public health clinics throughout Los Angeles County. Public Health distributed 305,946 antigen test kits for the week ending July 30, 2023, bringing the total number of test kits distributed in Los Angeles County in June and July 2023 to more than 2 million. To find out how and where to get free test kits, visit http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/covidtests.

For people who have tested positive, treatment is easy to access in Los Angeles County. Public Health offers free telehealth services that include delivering medicine directly to the person who needs it. Beginning treatment within five days of the start of symptoms can prevent serious illness and reduce the amount of time a person may test positive for COVID-19. Early evidence also suggests that treatment may lower the risk of developing long COVID. For free telehealth services and other COVID-19 resources, contact the Public Health Call Center at 1-833-540-0473. It’s open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

With fall approaching, Los Angeles County residents also should begin talking with their health care provider about updating protection against COVID-19, flu and, if 60 years or older or a very young child, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are expected to issue vaccination guidance for the anticipated fall COVID-19 vaccine in the upcoming weeks. Once approved, Public Health will work with community partners to make sure that residents have easy access to the updated COVID-19 vaccine and other recommended vaccines to protect against severe illness during fall and winter.

With the lifting of the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) vaccine requirements for health care workers on Aug. 5, 2023, Los Angeles County will rescind the current Health Officer Order, COVID-19 Vaccination Requirement for Healthcare Workers. The COVID-19 vaccine will no longer be required for workers in health care settings; however, health care workers are encouraged to be fully up to date on COVID-19 vaccines. When workers in health care settings are up to date on their vaccines, there is both a reduced risk to patients and among health care workers themselves, as vaccines provide strong protection against severe illness that harms patients and staff.

Public Health will wait until the FDA and CDC issue vaccination guidance for the anticipated fall vaccine before updating appropriate vaccination safety protections for health care workers.

Health care workers should continue to wear a well-fitting mask when providing care to or working in-person with patients, clients and residents and when in patient care areas in health care and direct care settings in accordance with Health Officer Order, Required Masking of Workers in Healthcare and Direct Care Settings.

Public Health continues to monitor COVID-19 in Los Angeles County. If there are significant changes in level of transmission, hospitalizations or Early Alert Metrics, Public Health will review and revise current policies.

Los Angeles County remains in the CDC Low Hospital Admission Level with 3.0 weekly COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people, reported on July 31 for the seven-day period ending July 22. Hospital Admission Levels replaced COVID-19 Community Levels.

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.weekly counts that represented the number of cases and deaths newly confirmed as COVID-associated for the particular week.

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 one additional deaths from COVID-19 in the city of Santa Clarita, bringing the total number of deaths in the SCV to 569.

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: 464

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 100,254 cases reported to Public Health for the SCV to date, the community breakdown is as follows:

Santa Clarita: 74,043

Castaic: 9,751

Stevenson Ranch: 6,040

Canyon Country: 3,798

Acton: 2,030

Val Verde: 1,228 (revised from 1,229)

Agua Dulce: 999 (revised from 1,000)

Valencia: 944

Saugus: 347 (revised from 352)

Elizabeth Lake: 289

Bouquet Canyon: 207

Lake Hughes: 207

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

As of Aug. 3, California has confirmed a total of 103,054 COVID-19 deaths.

Hospitalizations updated Aug. 3, at 9:36 a.m., with data from July 29, 2023

Deaths and Tests updated Aug. 3, at 9:36 a.m., with data from Aug. 1, 2023.

For more California data, click [here].