The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health confirmed Friday 202 new laboratory confirmed cases and two new deaths from COVID-19 in the Santa Clarita Valley within the last week.

Public Health is now reporting COVID-19 data once a week. This is the most recent data from Jan. 25.

This new data brings Los Angeles County death totals to 37,257 case totals to 3,862,182 and Santa Clarita Valley case totals to 104,470 since March of 2020. SCV deaths from COVID-19 increase to 591.

As COVID-19 Circulation Remains Elevated in Los Angeles County, Vaccination, Other Sensible Precautions Strongly Recommended

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reports that the spread of COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses remains elevated despite some COVID-19 metrics, including cases, hospitalizations, and deaths — decreasing slightly over the past week.

In Los Angeles County, wastewater concentrations of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, appear to be plateauing at a high level, with concentrations at 67 percent of last year’s winter peak for the week ending Jan. 13, similar to the concentrations for the previous week. Wastewater concentrations provide a more complete picture of COVID-19 transmission levels than reported cases alone.

Other indicators have declined but remain at heightened levels. The reported daily average of COVID-19 cases decreased to 422 this week from 462 the previous week. Reported cases do not include home test results, so the actual number of COVID-19 infections in the community is much higher. The daily average of COVID-positive hospitalizations decreased to 727 for the week ending Jan. 20, from 776 a week earlier. Public Health is reporting an average of 4.9 deaths per day for the week ending Jan. 1, a decrease from 5.6 deaths per day reported for the previous week.

Flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) also continue to spread at lower but still elevated levels in Los Angeles County. There was an average of 263 influenza-positive hospitalized patients per day for the week ending Jan. 13, a decrease from the average of 384 influenza-positive hospitalized patients per day the week before. Data from sentinel surveillance laboratories shows that for the week ending Jan. 13, 12.4 percent of specimens tested for influenza and 7.8 percent of specimens tested for RSV were positive, compared to 13.8 percent and 9.4 percent, respectively, the previous week.

Because COVID-19 and other respiratory virus indicators remain elevated, sensible precautions, such as getting vaccinated and, if sick, staying home, testing, and seeking treatment are still strongly recommended, especially for older adults and other people at higher risk for severe illness. Getting the updated COVID-19 vaccine is one of the best ways to reduce the risk of severe illness, hospitalization, and death from COVID-19. At least one dose of the updated vaccine is recommended for everyone six months and older. For more information about vaccines, visit ph.lacounty.gov/vaccines.

To help stem the spread of respiratory viruses this winter, residents should stay home when sick and test if they have symptoms or were exposed to COVID-19. Individuals who test positive for COVID-19 and have symptoms can leave isolation once they are fever free for 24 hours without using fever-reducing medication AND other symptoms are mild and improving, provided they wear a well-fitting high-quality mask when around others for 10 days following symptom onset. Individuals who tested positive for COVID-19 and have no symptoms are not required to isolate provided they wear a well-fitting, high-quality respiratory mask whenever they are around other people for 10 days following their first positive test result. Other simple precautions include washing hands frequently and wearing a well-fitting, high-quality mask in crowded indoor spaces, such as airports, transit centers and venues with poor ventilation. This is especially important for residents who are at higher risk for severe illness or plan to spend time with people who are older or have underlying health conditions that can make them more vulnerable to getting very sick from respiratory illnesses. For more information on precautions against respiratory viruses, visit the Public Health website.

For free and reliable information about COVID-19 and other health-related topics, call the Public Health InfoLine at 1-833-540-0473. Specially trained staff can help residents get free vaccines and at-home test kits, secure a telehealth appointment for medicine to treat COVID-19 and, for people who have difficulty leaving their homes, to arrange to be vaccinated at home. The InfoLIne is free and available to Los Angeles County residents, regardless of their insurance or immigration status, seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

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 daily averages are 7-day averages. Data for past weeks are subject to change in future reports. Time periods covered by each metric: cases = week ending each Saturday; wastewater = week ending each Saturday, with a one-week lag; ED data = week ending each Sunday; hospitalizations = week ending each Saturday; deaths = week ending each Monday, with a three-week lag; death percentage = week ending Monday, with a one-week lag.

Case data is presented by episode date, an approximation of the date the illness began, and death data is presented by date of death. This is a change from how case and death data were presented prior to July 26, 2023, which was by date of report. Daily average cases do not include Long Beach and Pasadena. Daily average deaths include Long Beach and Pasadena for all weeks except 1/3/24. Long Beach and Pasadena are not included in the daily average death count for 1/3/24 because data was not available from CDPH due to the holiday.

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 Update

The L.A. County Public Health dashboard reported one additional death from COVID-19 in Acton and one new death in Lake Hughes, bringing the total number of deaths in the SCV to 579.

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 of the 591 deaths in the SCV per L.A. County’s dashboard:

Santa Clarita: 478

Castaic: 35

Acton: 21

Stevenson Ranch: 19

Unincorporated Canyon Country: 11

Agua Dulce: 8

Val Verde: 6

Elizabeth Lake: 4

Lake Hughes: 3

Valencia: 2

Unincorporated Bouquet Canyon: 2

Newhall: 1

Unincorporated Saugus/Canyon Country: 1

SCV Cases

Of the 104,470 cases reported to Public Health for the SCV to date, the community breakdown is as follows:

City of Santa Clarita: 77,117

*Castaic: 10,135

Stevenson Ranch: 6,325

Canyon Country (unincorporated portion): 3,958

Acton: 2,114

Val Verde: 1,277

Agua Dulce: 1,042

Valencia (unincorporated portion west of I-5): 998

Saugus (unincorporated portion): 363

Elizabeth Lake: 307

Bouquet Canyon: 222

Lake Hughes: 214

Saugus/Canyon Country: 153

Newhall (Unincorporated portion): 109

Sand Canyon: 64

San Francisquito/Bouquet Canyon: 47

Placerita Canyon: 25

*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 By the Numbers

California now reports weekly COVID updates on Fridays. Updated data as of Friday, Jan. 26:

For more California data, click [here].