SCV News | Thursday COVID-19 Roundup: L.A. County Readies for Less Restrictive Tier; SCV Cases Total 27,691

Uploaded: , Thursday, Apr 29, 2021

By Press Release

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health confirmed Thursday 42 new deaths and 416 new cases of COVID-19, with 27,691 total cases in the Santa Clarita Valley.

To date, Public Health identified 1,232,727 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County and a total of 23,872 deaths.

Thirty-one deaths are cases newly identified as COVID-19 deaths that occurred 4-12 months ago. Of the 42 new deaths reported Thursday, 17 people that passed away were over the age of 80, 15 people who died were between the ages of 65 and 79, seven people who died were between the ages of 50 and 64, and one person who died was between the ages of 30 and 49. Two deaths were reported by the city of Long Beach.

There are 410 people with COVID-19 currently hospitalized and 26% of these people are in the ICU. Testing results are available for nearly 6,500,000 individuals with 18% of people testing positive. Thursday’s daily test positivity rate is 0.8%.

Los Angeles County’s case rate remains relatively low and stable. A month ago, on March 21, the County was seeing 433 cases a day. A month later, on April 21, the number of new cases dropped 34% to 337 cases a day. Over the same time period, daily average confirmed hospitalizations dropped 38%. Daily deaths dropped even more dramatically over the same time period, from 22 on March 21 to 4 on April 21, a drop of more than 80%.

Yellow Tier Criteria
L.A. County has remained in the State’s orange tier for more than three weeks and now has met the yellow tier’s criteria for one week. If, as anticipated, Los Angeles County continues to meet the State’s yellow tier criteria for one more week, the County could enter into the yellow tier in the middle of next week. Moving into the yellow tier allows for increases in capacity in many sectors, and allows bars to begin providing indoor service at 25% capacity. All of these changes will still require safety modifications, including masking, distancing and infection control to reduce the risk of transmission. The sectors with increases in capacity limits include amusement parks and fairs, gyms and fitness centers, yoga studios, private events, bars, hotels and short-term lodging rentals, private gatherings, breweries, indoor playgrounds, restaurants, cardrooms and racetracks, indoor and outdoor live events and performances, wineries and tasting rooms, family entertainment centers, and museums, zoos, and aquariums. If the County moves to the yellow tier next week, a modified Health Officer Order will be posted on Wednesday, May 5 that will go into effect on Thursday, May 6.

CDC’s New Guidance for Fully Vaccinated Americans
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued new guidance indicating that vaccinated people can do many outdoor activities in uncrowded spaces unmasked including attending small gatherings with unvaccinated people, dining outdoors with friends from multiple households, and walking, running or cycling outdoors. Fully vaccinated individuals are required to mask up at crowded outdoor events, like live performances, parades, or sports events. The Health Officer Order will be updated today to align with the change in CDC recommendations around masking for fully vaccinated people.

Public Health has made vaccinations available without appointments at all of County sites for the past week, and this will continue through next week. Everyone 16 and older living or working in L.A. County can walk-in and get vaccinated. You should bring a photo ID with you and teens 16 and 17 should be accompanied by a parent or guardian.

Visit: www.VaccinateLACounty.com (English) and www.VacunateLosAngeles.com (Spanish) to learn how to make an appointment at vaccination sites, what verifications people will need to show at your vaccination appointment, and much more. Vaccinations are always free and open to eligible residents and workers regardless of immigration status.

California Thursday Snapshot
The California Department of Public Health confirmed Thursday 3,636,235 confirmed cases and 60,362 deaths to date. There are 1,715 confirmed hospitalizations and 401 ICU hospitalizations in the state.

Numbers may not represent true day-over-day change as reporting of test results can be delayed.

There were 1,457 newly recorded confirmed cases Wednesday.

The 7-day positivity rate is 1.3%.

There have been 59,795,197 tests conducted in California. This represents an increase of 173,688 during the prior 24-hour reporting period.

As of April 29, providers have reported administering a total of 29,262,215 vaccine doses statewide. The CDC reports that 37,500,880 doses have been delivered to entities within the state. Numbers do not represent true day-to-day change as reporting may be delayed.For more vaccination data, visit the COVID-19 Vaccine Data Dashboard.

Health Care Worker Infection Rates
As of April 28, local health departments have reported 107,383 confirmed positive cases in health care workers and 453 deaths statewide.

Santa Clarita Valley Thursday Update
As of 5:30 p.m. Thursday, the L.A. County Public Health dashboard remained unchanged from Wednesday, recording a total of 304 deaths among Santa Clarita Valley residents.

The following is the community breakdown of the 304 SCV residents who have died, according to the L.A. County dashboard:

261 in Santa Clarita

18 in Castaic

6 in Acton

6 in Stevenson Ranch

3 in Agua Dulce

3 in unincorporated Canyon Country

1 in unincorporated Bouquet Canyon

1 in Elizabeth Lake

1 in Lake Hughes

1 in Newhall

1 in unincorporated Saugus/Canyon Country

1 in Valencia

1 in Val Verde

Of the 27,691 cases reported to Public Health for the SCV to date, the community breakdown is as follows:

City of Santa Clarita: 20,274

Castaic: 3,727

(includes Pitchess Detention Center and North County Correctional Facility*)

Stevenson Ranch: 1,137

Canyon Country (unincorporated portion): 841

Acton: 470

Val Verde: 336

Agua Dulce: 278

Valencia (unincorporated portion west of I-5): 193

Saugus (unincorporated portion): 129

Elizabeth Lake: 76

Newhall (Unincorporated portion): 68

Bouquet Canyon: 47

Lake Hughes: 42

Saugus/Canyon Country: 40

Sand Canyon: 17

San Francisquito/Bouquet Canyon: 15

Placerita Canyon: 1

*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.

Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital Thursday Update
As of Thursday, there were zero cases pending, five patients were hospitalized in a dedicated COVID-19 unit, and a total of 1,225 patients had been treated and discharged since the pandemic began, hospital spokesman Patrick Moody said.

There were no additional deaths, keeping the total deaths at 147 people to date. The most recent death was March 21.

“As you can see from the number of patients we have here, the pandemic is not yet over,” Moody recently said. “We encourage everyone to remain cautious and follow safe practices.”

Privacy laws prohibit the hospital from releasing the community of residence for patients who die there; that info is reported by the L.A. County Public Health COVID-19 dashboard, which generally lags 48 hours behind.

L.A. County

“We extend our deepest condolences to the friends and families who are living through this tragedy. We are sending our love and prayers during your time of grief,” said Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health. “With all the fear we’ve been living with over the past year, many of us may have forgotten what an incredibly fun place Los Angeles can be. We are so close to being able to reclaim that fun – and the ticket to doing that is getting ourselves, our friends, our families and our co-workers vaccinated. When we’ve gotten our vaccines and know everyone around is also vaccinated, we can feel safe enough to be close to them, to laugh and sing and dance with them, to enjoy them and the place where we live – without fear.”

Currently, 7,201,703 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered to people across Los Angeles County. Of these, 4,562,211 were first doses and 2,639,492 were second doses. About 32% of residents 16 and older are fully vaccinated.

Two weeks ago, vaccine eligibility expanded to include teens 16 and 17, and now a full quarter of L.A. County’s teens in that age group have been vaccinated. The County has also seen huge numbers of seniors get vaccinated: 60% of adults 65 and older have been fully vaccinated, and 75% have received one dose of a vaccine. Along the beach and the west side, many communities have rates of vaccination upward of 60%. At the same time, vaccination rates remain below 30% in Antelope Valley, Lancaster and Palmdale, and in parts of east LA and south LA. High vaccination rates in many of our well-resourced communities reflect in part the advantages people have when transportation, time, computer and internet access, and work restrictions are not barriers to getting vaccinated.

While much work remains to be done to close these gaps, more than half of all doses that have been administered in L.A. County have gone to people who live in communities with less resources that promote optimal health and well-being. To help make it as easy as possible to obtain a vaccine in communities hit hardest by the pandemic, Public Health is targeting efforts to set up vaccination centers in the places central to these communities. Among these efforts are partnerships forming and continuing with schools to create vaccination centers. This week there are 41 school sites serving as vaccination sites.

A total of 716 sites are offering vaccinations this week in L.A. County. Many of these vaccination sites are concentrated in areas that have been hard hit by the pandemic and Public Health continues working with many partners to increase access to vaccinations at their sites without appointments. County Reopening Protocols, COVID-19 Vaccine Dashboard, COVID-19 Surveillance Interactive Dashboard, Roadmap to Recovery, Recovery Dashboard, and additional actions you can take to protect yourself, your family and your community are on the Public Health website, www.publichealth.lacounty.gov.

California Thursday

Additional data and udpates:

Tracking COVID-19 in California

State Dashboard – Daily COVID-19 data

County Map – Local data, including tier status and ICU capacity

Data and Tools – Models and dashboards for researchers, scientists, and the public

Blueprint for a Safer Economy– Data for establishing tier status

COVID-19 Race & Ethnicity Data – Weekly updated Race & Ethnicity data

Cases and Deaths by Age Group – Weekly updated Deaths by Age Group data

Health Equity Dashboard – See how COVID-19 highlights existing inequities in health

Tracking Variants – Data on the variants California is currently monitoring

Safe Schools for All Hub – Information about safe in-person instruction

School Districts Reopening Map – data on public schools and reported outbreaks

Vaccine Eligibility Update

Individuals age 16+ are eligible to make an appointment to be vaccinated. Visit myturn.ca.gov to make an appointment or visit Vaccinate All 58 to learn more about the safe and effective vaccines available.

Blueprint for a Safer Economy
All counties are under the rules and framework of the Blueprint for a Safer Economy and color-coded tiers that indicate which activities and businesses are open based on local case rates and test positivity. As always, local public health departments may implement policies that are more restrictive than the state.

Blueprint Summary as of April 27

0 counties in the Purple (widespread) Tier

13 counties in the Red (substantial) Tier

41 counties in Orange (moderate) Tier

4 counties in Yellow (minimal) Tier

Blueprint tiers are updated weekly on Tuesdays. Find the status of activities in specific counties.

Additional Date and Updates

County Map – Local data, including tier status and ICU capacity

Data and Tools – Models and dashboards for researchers, scientists and the public

Blueprint for a Safer Economy – Data for establishing tier status

New Testing Turnaround Time Dashboard
The testing turnaround dashboard reports how long California patients are waiting for COVID-19 test results. During the week of April 18 to April 24, the average time patients waited for test results was just under one day. During this same time period, 83% of patients received test results in one day and 98% received them within two days.

Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C)
As of April 26, there have been 491 cases Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) have been reported statewide. MIS-C is a rare inflammatory condition associated with COVID-19 that can damage multiple organ systems. MIS-C can require hospitalization and be life threatening.

MIS-C is a rare inflammatory condition associated with COVID-19 that can damage multiple organ systems. MIS-C can require hospitalization and be life threatening. Parents should be aware of the signs and symptoms of MIS-C including fever that does not go away, abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, neck pain, rash, bloodshot eyes or feeling tired. Contact your child’s doctor immediately if your child has these symptoms. Early diagnosis and treatment of patients is critical to preventing long-term complications.

View additional datasets at the California Open Data Portal (Including: Testing Data, PPE Logistics Data, Hospital Data, Homeless Impact and more)

Your Actions Save Lives
Protect yourself, family, friends and your community by following these prevention measures:

– Get vaccinated when it’s your turn. Californians age 16+ are eligible to make an appointment.

– If you are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 (fever, cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, muscle or body aches), call your health care provider.

– If you believe you have been exposed, get tested. Free, confidential testing is available statewide.

– Keep gatherings small and outdoors and follow state and local public health guidance.

– Wear a mask and get the most out of masking – an effective mask has both good fit and good filtration.

– Wash hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.

– Delay non-essential travel outside of California until you are fully vaccinated. Follow California’s travel advisory.

– Avoid close contact with people who are sick and stay home from work and school if you feel ill.

– Add your phone to the fight by signing up for COVID-19 exposure notifications from CA Notify.

– Answer the call or text if a contact tracer from the CA COVID Team or your local health department tries to connect.

Always check with trusted sources for the latest accurate information about novel coronavirus:

– Los Angeles County Department of Public Health

– California Department of Public Health

– Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

– Spanish

– World Health Organization

L.A. County residents can also call 2-1-1.

What to Do if You Think You’re Sick
Call ahead: If you are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 (fever, cough or shortness of breath), call your health care provider before seeking medical care so that appropriate precautions can be taken. More than 85 community testing sites also offer free, confidential testing: Find a COVID-19 Testing Site.

For more information about what Californians can do to prevent the spread of COVID-19, visit Coronavirus (COVID-19) in California.

California continues to issue guidance on preparing and protecting California from COVID-19. Consolidated guidance is available on the California Department of Public Health’s Guidance webpage.

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