Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital reported one additional death related to COVID-19 Thursday, bringing the total in the Santa Clarita Valley to 46.
This comes as Los Angeles County Public Health Department officials announced 2,628 additional COVID-19 cases and 41 new deaths on Thursday, bringing the countywide totals to 185,872 and 4,552, respectively.
In the Santa Clarita Valley, 31 new COVID-19 cases were reported Thursday, with 21 in the city of Santa Clarita, three in Canyon Country, two each in Acton and Val Verde, and one each in Agua Dulce, Castaic and Valencia.
Due to patient privacy policy, the hospital declined to give any information about the newly reported deceased, according to hospital spokesman Patrick Moody.
Upon further investigation, Public Health officials said that five deaths reported earlier were not L.A. County residents, including one in the city of Santa Clarita, bringing the local death toll down to 45.
Of the 41 newly reported deaths in L.A. County: 21 of those who died were over the age of 80, 20 of whom had underlying health conditions; 10 were between the ages of 65-79 and all had underlying health conditions; four were between the ages of 50-64 and all had underlying health conditions; and four were between the ages of 30-49, two of whom had underlying health conditions. The remaining deaths were reported by the city of Long Beach, which has its own public health department.
Public Health also reported 2,022 confirmed COVID-19 cases currently hospitalized Thursday, 27% of whom are in the ICU, while there are 2,597 suspected COVID-19 cases hospitalized, 17% on ventilators.
Dr. Muntu Davis, the county’s health officer, continued to express the danger of gathering with those outside your household, saying that they pose an especially high danger of transmitting COVID-19.
“The more an individual interacts with others at a gathering and the longer the interactions last, the higher the potential risk of becoming infected with COVID-19 and spreading COVID-19 is,” Davis added. “Right now, we continue to have community spread of COVID-19, and gathering with hundreds of people indoors is a dangerous thing to do. It’s incumbent upon every institution and business in our community to take the public health orders in place seriously and follow them.”
Testing results are available for 1.7 million individuals, with 10% of all people testing positive, per Public Health.
Public Health also unveiled a new text-based survey, called Angelenos in Action, to monitor COVID-19 symptoms across the county.
The confidential survey, which consists of five questions, is aimed at capturing potential spikes and trends in real time to assist Public Health workers in appropriately allocating resources to affected communities.
Anyone over 18 who lives in L.A. County and has access to a cell phone that can send and receive text messages can volunteer for the survey, which is available in English and Spanish, via Public Health’s website or by texting @PROTECT to 35134.
SCV cases
Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital released its latest tallies Thursday, which showed that more than 40 tests had been conducted in the past 24 hours, totaling 5,317 since the start of the pandemic. Of those tested — many of whom are tested more than once — 657 returned positive, 5,808 were negative, and 176 remain pending, according to Moody. A total of 180 people have recovered and been discharged, while 25 remained at the hospital, Moody added.
The number of SCV cases, including all area health care providers’ daily figures and those at Pitchess Detention Center, totaled 4,332 Thursday, broken down into region, are as follows:
City of Santa Clarita: 2,122
Unincorporated – Acton: 42
Unincorporated – Agua Dulce: 19
Unincorporated – Bouquet Canyon: 1
Unincorporated – Canyon Country: 79
Unincorporated – Castaic: 1,857 (majority of Castaic cases come from Pitchess Detention Center, exact number unavailable)
Unincorporated – Lake Hughes: 1
Unincorporated – Newhall: 5
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: 111
Unincorporated – Val Verde: 44
Unincorporated – Valencia: 34
To view all coronavirus-related stories, visit signalscv.com/category/news/coronavirus.
