Los Angeles County Public Health Department officials announced Tuesday 2,708 additional COVID-19 cases, along with 51 new deaths, bringing the total to 178,642 and 4,426, respectively.
In addition, the Santa Clarita Valley saw 47 new COVID-19 cases reported Tuesday, with 39 in the city of Santa Clarita, four in Stevenson Ranch, two in Castaic, and one each in Saugus and Val Verde.
However, Public Health officials continued to warn that they expect to receive an influx of backlogged cases in the coming days due to previous reporting delays in California’s electronic lab system.
“As individuals, and as a community, we must collectively commit to continuously practice the behaviors that slow the spread of COVID-19,” Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said in a prepared statement. “Compliance with public health directives, containment of the virus, and collaboration across all sectors are key for us to move into the long-term recovery that we all want to see happen as soon as possible.”
Of the 51 newly reported deaths: 21 were over the age of 80, 20 of whom had underlying health conditions; 12 were between the ages of 65-79, 10 of whom had underlying health conditions; 11 were between the ages of 50-64, nine of whom had underlying health conditions; five were between the ages of 30-49, three of whom had underlying health conditions; and two were between the ages of 18-29 and had underlying health conditions.
Public Health also reported 2,051 confirmed COVID-19 cases currently hospitalized, 29% of whom are in the ICU, while there are a total of 2,621 suspect cases of COVID-19 hospitalized, 18% of whom are on ventilators. The hospitalization data reported is again incomplete due to data from three nonreporting hospitals not being part of Tuesday’s update.
Testing results are available for nearly 1.675 million individuals, with 10% of all people testing positive, per Public Health.
Statewide updates
In California, Dr. Mark Ghaly, the Secretary of the California Health and Human Services, announced Tuesday the state’s Public Health department will put out new regulations to improve data collection, including the ability to collect race and ethnicity, as well as new data on sexual orientation and gender identity.
“We need that to improve, so that we have a better sense of where transmission is happening, which communities are impacted and what the magnitude of that impact is,” Ghaly said. “We expect over the course of the next month that we’ll see improvements in the use of these fields and our ability to report out to you and to use this data to effectively see how our interventions are working and what more we need to do in California to not just address the COVID-19 situation, but also to close disparities.”
SCV cases
Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital reported one additional death related to COVID-19 Monday, bringing the total in the Santa Clarita Valley to 44, according to Public Health’s latest figures.
Henry Mayo also released its weekly tallies Monday, which showed that more than 689 tests had been conducted in the past week, totaling 5,171 since the start of the pandemic. Of those, 637 returned positive, 5,585 were negative, and 225 remain pending, according to hospital spokesman Patrick Moody. A total of 171 people have recovered and been discharged, while 28 remained at the hospital — an increase of five since Wednesday.
The number of SCV cases, including all area health care providers’ daily figures and those at Pitchess Detention Center, totaled 4,231 Tuesday, broken down into region, are as follows:
City of Santa Clarita: 2,040
Unincorporated – Acton: 40
Unincorporated – Agua Dulce: 18
Unincorporated – Bouquet Canyon: 1
Unincorporated – Canyon Country: 75
Unincorporated – Castaic: 1,853 (majority of Castaic cases come from Pitchess Detention Center, exact number unavailable)
Unincorporated – Lake Hughes: 1
Unincorporated – Newhall: 4
Unincorporated – Placerita Canyon: 0
Unincorporated – San Francisquito Canyon/Bouquet Canyon: 0
Unincorporated – Sand Canyon: 3
Unincorporated – Saugus: 13
Unincorporated – Saugus/Canyon Country: 1
Unincorporated – Stevenson Ranch: 108
Unincorporated – Val Verde: 42
Unincorporated – Valencia: 32
To view all coronavirus-related stories, visit signalscv.com/category/news/coronavirus.
