Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital announced Friday an additional COVID-19 death, bringing the total number of COVID-19 deaths at the hospital to 160.
Friday’s announcement also marks the fifth COVID-19 death in five days at Henry Mayo, where there are 40 COVID-19 patients with one COVID-19 test pending.
“We strongly encourage all who are eligible for vaccination to get vaccinated, to protect themselves and their loved ones,” Patrick Moody, a spokesman for the hospital, told The Signal. “We hope that the recent full FDA approval of the Pfizer vaccine will motivate those who had been waiting for this development.”
School Sports
On Thursday, Barbara Ferrer, the director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, announced that half of the 14 outbreaks at Los Angeles County schools were associated with school sports.
“Youth sports programs can be a high-risk environment for COVID transmission,” Ferrer said, noting that the county has largely aligned with guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for sports.
Ferrer said face coverings are required for all indoor sports, regardless of vaccination status, though masks can be removed for indoor water sports.
“We do encourage the practices and games can be moved outdoors whenever feasible and when they’re not, the players may need to bring more than one mask, so that they can change masks if they’re getting wet or soiled,” she said, noting that coaches, team employees and spectators must wear masks indoors.
Masks are recommended outdoors in crowded outdoor sports events, according to Ferrer.
William S. Hart Union High School District
Public Health officials previously posted on the department’s website data on cheer team outbreaks at West Ranch and Castaic High Schools, and those have been resolved, according to the William S. Hart Union High School District.
“All have been back to school,” Dave Caldwell, a spokesman for the Hart district, told The Signal on Friday about the 23 students with confirmed cases of COVID-19 after a voluntary cheer camp in Indian Wells.
An outbreak of 12 students on the Saugus High School cheer team listed on the Public Health Department’s website was inaccurate, said Caldwell.
“There are six cheerleaders at Saugus who have tested positive,” he said, noting that contact tracing hadn’t yet determined where the cheerleaders contracted COVID-19.
The county Public Health Department had not responded to a request for comment regarding the data discrepancy as of press time Friday.
Since Oct. 1, 2020, Saugus High School has experienced 29 student cases of COVID-19.
“The main thing that we do (at) the Hart school district is educate students, and that’s what needs to stay our main focus,” Caldwell said. “We need to be able to do whatever it takes so that we can continue to do that main thing (and) we can continue to educate students in the classroom (and) in their extracurricular activities.”
Public Health officials also released the following updated COVID-19 statistics Friday:
Countywide COVID-19 cases reported in the past 24 hours: 2,789
Total COVID-19 cases in L.A. County: 1,397,236
New deaths related to COVID-19 reported in the past 24 hours: 30
Total COVID-19 deaths in L.A. County: 25,211
Hospitalizations countywide: 1,723
Hospitalizations at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital as of Aug. 27: 40, with 1,416 discharged since the onset of the pandemic.
COVID-19 cases reported in the Santa Clarita Valley in the past 24 hours: 83, 64 of which came from the city of Santa Clarita*
Total COVID-19 cases in the SCV as of Aug. 27: 33,334
Total COVID-19 deaths in the SCV as of Aug. 26: 313
Percentage of vaccinated people (at least one dose) in the city of Santa Clarita as of Aug. 19: 74.26%
Percentage of vaccinated people (at least one dose) in the SCV as of Aug. 19: 70.77%
*The county added back more than 500 cases on Thursday, Aug. 26, that were assigned to Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic, but had fallen off of the county’s count on Friday, Aug. 20.
