The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health confirmed Thursday 158 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. 17.

This new data brings Los Angeles County death totals to 36,612, case totals to 3,772,815 and Santa Clarita Valley case totals to 100,570 since March of 2020. SCV deaths from COVID-19 rise to 570.

Higher Risk Individuals Need to Reduce Exposure with Cases Rising

With COVID-19 transmissions and hospitalizations on the rise in Los Angeles County, residents at higher risk should consider employing simple strategies to reduce their exposures and prevent severe illness. Individuals who are older, those with weakened immune systems, and those with chronic health conditions continue to experience higher rates of hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19.

To reduce risks, especially as transmission of the virus is increasing, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) asks those more vulnerable to take precautions to reduce potential exposures, identify COVID infections early, and consult with a health care provider when infected to access appropriate therapeutics. Protective measures include wearing a well-fitting, high filtration mask when traveling via public transit, when in poorly ventilated and/or crowded indoor spaces, and when at health care facilities.

Those that provide services to individuals at higher risk of severe illness from COVID are also asked to take sensible steps to prevent transmission of COVID-19; this includes staying home and away from others if sick, testing before gathering indoors, and wearing a mask if providing patient care.

Even as hospitalizations from COVID-19 remain at near-record lows, older adults continue to be hospitalized at significantly higher rates than any other age group in Los Angeles County. Public Health data shows that people 80 years old and older were more than five times as likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than people ages 50-79, during the 30-day period ending Aug. 5. Adults ages 50 to 79 were four times as likely to be hospitalized from COVID-19 than people 30-49 years old during the same 30-day period.

Some of the people at highest risk of complications from COVID-19 live in skilled nursing facilities, where there has been an increase in COVID-19 outbreaks in recent weeks. Public Health opened 59 new outbreak investigations at skilled nursing facilities in Los Angeles County during the 30-day period ending Aug. 16, a significant increase from the 34 outbreak investigations opened during the previous 30 days.

One way to reduce outbreaks at skilled nursing facilities is to make sure residents, staff and visitors are up to date on their vaccinations. As of Aug. 15, 76 percent of all skilled nursing facility residents and half of all staff are up to date on their COVID-19 vaccinations. Vaccines are a safe, highly effective and relatively simple to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

As fall approaches, all residents are encouraged to ask their health care provider what vaccines they should get to protect against COVID-19, flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are slated to consider authorizing a new COVID-19 vaccine next month. The yearly flu vaccine also is recommended for everyone 6 months old and older. Additionally, a new RSV vaccine has been approved for people ages 60 and older and other new RSV protections are now available for infants and young children.

Anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 should talk to their health care provider about treatment options, such as Paxlovid, as soon as possible. Treatment must begin within five days of the onset of symptoms. To access free telehealth services for treatment, contact the Public Health Call Center, seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., at 1-833-540-0473.

Los Angeles County remains in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Low Hospital Admission Level with 4.1 weekly COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people, reported on Aug. 14 for the seven-day period ending Aug. 5.

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:

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 death from COVID-19 in Castaic, bringing the total number of deaths in the SCV to 570.

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: 31 (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 100,570 cases reported to Public Health for the SCV to date, the community breakdown is as follows:

Santa Clarita: 74,271

Castaic: 9,791

Stevenson Ranch: 6,057

Canyon Country: 3,808

Acton: 2,039

Val Verde: 1,229

Agua Dulce: 1,003

Valencia: 948

Saugus: 347 (revised from 352)

Elizabeth Lake: 290

Bouquet Canyon: 207

Lake Hughes: 207

Saugus/Canyon Country: 135

Newhall: 107

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 deadline Aug. 17, California Department of Public Health had not released COVID-19 data. Below is the most updated information from Aug. 10:

As of Aug. 10, California has confirmed a total of 103,339 COVID-19 deaths.

Hospitalizations updated Aug. 10, at 9:36 a.m., with data from Aug. 5.

Deaths and Tests updated Aug. 10, at 9:36 a.m., with data from Aug. 8.

For more California data, click [here].