The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health confirmed Thursday 55 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 11.

This new data brings Los Angeles County death totals to 36,291, county case totals to 3,740,986 and Santa Clarita Valley case totals to 99,400 since March of 2020. SCV deaths from COVID-19 remain at 557.

Access to COVID-19 Protections Continues for Los Angeles County Residents Even as U.S. Emergency Declarations End

As the U.S. Public Health Emergency and the National Emergency Declaration for COVID-19 end today, following last week’s announcement by the World Health Organization (WHO) that COVID-19 is no longer considered a global public health emergency, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) remains committed to ensuring all residents have access to the tools they need to keep community transmission low.

While the end of the federal states of emergency signals a new phase in the pandemic, COVID-19 continues to be one of the leading causes of death in Los Angeles County, requiring ongoing efforts to reduce severe illness through readily available vaccinations, testing and treatment.

Fortunately, Los Angeles County residents will see few immediate changes in their access to preventative resources. The federal government will continue to make its supply of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, Paxlovid and Molnupiravir, available to residents at no cost regardless of a person’s insurance coverage.

In California, new laws require insurance plans, including Medicare or Medi-Cal, to cover the cost of vaccines, testing and Paxlovid for COVID-19 treatment through Nov. 11, 2023. Exact coverage may vary depending on an individual’s insurance plan.

Residents without insurance may receive free at-home test kits or PCR tests for COVID-19 at public health clinics and vaccination sites, at community health centers or purchase tests from a local retailer. People who are uninsured can visit coveredca.com to see if they qualify for Medi-Cal or Covered California coverage.

Public Health’s Call Center will continue to operate, connecting eligible residents to free telehealth, homebound vaccination appointments, COVID-19 information and other resources. Residents are encouraged to call 1-833-540-0473, available daily between 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., to access these services.

The 7-day average number of COVID hospitalizations is 252 this week, similar to the 266 reported last week. Reported weekly deaths also remained stable at 46 deaths this week; this is slightly less than the 51 deaths reported last week.

Public Health will continue to sequence COVID-19 variants and strains as a part of its efforts to monitor COVID-19. XBB.1.5 remains the dominant strain in Los Angeles County accounting for 83% of sequenced specimens for the week ending April 15, 2023. The second most dominant strain was XBB.1.9.1, accounting for 7% of sequenced specimens. L.A. County has had 13 confirmed cases of XBB.1.16 and data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that XBB.1.16 makes up 10% of cases in California and surrounding states.

Starting Thursday, CDC is retiring the COVID-19 Community Levels and will be replacing them with hospitalization metrics. Los Angeles County will closely monitor hospitalization data in alignment with CDC, along with a wide variety of additional metrics available on our dashboards listed below:

http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/media/Coronavirus/data/response-plan.htm

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 99,400 cases reported to Public Health for the SCV to date, the community breakdown is as follows:

Santa Clarita: 73,461

Castaic: 9,617

Stevenson Ranch: 5,985

Canyon Country: 3,763

Acton: 2,013

Val Verde: 1,221

Agua Dulce: 992

Valencia: 935

Saugus: 345

Elizabeth Lake: 288

Bouquet Canyon: 206

Lake Hughes: 203

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

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.​

As of May 11, 2023, California has confirmed a total of 11,253,052 COVID-19 cases and 101,886 deaths.

Vaccines Administered updated May 11, 2023 at 9:36 a.m., with data from May 10, 2023
Cases, Deaths, and Tests updated May 11, 2023 at 9:36 a.m., with data from May 9, 2023.

For more California data, click [here].