‘Cautious’ Re-Opening Urged By Los Angeles County Public Health

Posted by: KHTS Newsroom in Coronavirus, Santa Clarita Latest News October 5, 2020 - 1:54 pm 0 4,082 Views

Public Health officials are urging a “cautious” re-opening Monday, as more businesses in Los Angeles County are able to open.

On Monday, cardrooms in Los Angeles County are able to re-open for limited outdoor operations, along with indoor malls allowed to re-open at 25 percent capacity on Wednesday, according to Dr. Barbara Ferrer, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

Ferrer noted that Los Angeles County previously allowed certain businesses to re-open in July, which led to a spike in cases in conjunction with the Fourth of July holiday.

“As more sectors reopen and more students attend in-person classes in L.A. County, we must be sure that every business or sector that is re-opening complies with 100 percent of the safety directives,” Ferrer said. If the new re-openings result in increased community transmission, our recovery journey may need to slow down.”

In order to re-open, businesses must adhere to all COVID-19 prevention protocols, and those operations could face fines if not compliant, according to public health.

472 additional coronavirus cases have been reported Monday, bringing the Los Angeles County total to 274,942, according to Ferrer.

An additional seven deaths have been reported Monday, bringing the cumulative total in L.A. County to 6,654, according to the department.

A total of 2,726,583 coronavirus tests have been conducted as of Monday, with about 9 percent of those tests positive, according to Ferrer.

Although Los Angeles County met the State’s metric thresholds for Tier 2 last week, L.A. County remains in Tier 1 due to the current adjusted daily case rate of 7.3 cases per 100,000 residents.

Per the State guidelines, to move to Tier 2, the County’s case rate needs to be 7 or fewer new cases a day per 100,000 residents for two consecutive weeks. The County’s test positivity rate is 2.9 percent which places the County in Tier 3 for this metric, according to public health.

There are 674 people currently hospitalized with COVID-19 and 28 percent of these people are in the ICU.

As of Sunday, a total of 6,220 cumulative cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in the Santa Clarita Valley since testing began in March. These include:

3,609 in the City of Santa Clarita*
145 in the unincorporated areas of Canyon Country
2,096 in Castaic*
28 in the unincorporated areas of Saugus
173 in Stevenson Ranch
48 in the unincorporated areas of Valencia
85 in the unincorporated areas of Val Verde
14 in the unincorporated areas of Newhall
Nine in the unincorporated areas of Bouquet Canyon
Six in the unincorporated areas of Saugus/Canyon Country
Seven in unincorporated Sand Canyon

As of Sunday, Oct. 4, officials had recorded 1347 cumulative cases among prisoners at the North County Correctional Facility, and 500 at the Peter J. Pitchess Detention Center. Those cases are counted in both the City of Santa Clarita and Castaic totals.

Additionally, 73 cumulative cases were confirmed in nearby Acton as well as 28 in Agua Dulce.

An update on local numbers is expected later Monday.

An analysis of available data indicates that as of Sunday, Oct. 4, approximately 29.7 percent of all cumulative cases in and around the Santa Clarita Valley can be attributed to the inmate population at the North County Correctional Facility and the Pitchess Detention Center.

As of Friday, Oct. 2, Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital has conducted 8,571 COVID-19 tests. Of those, 906 have tested positive, and 27 tests are still pending with Henry Mayo, according to Patrick Moody, spokesperson for the hospital.

There are nine patients in the hospital as of Friday, while 266 patients have been discharged since the hospital’s first case was reported in March, according to Moody.

One additional COVID-19 death was confirmed at Henry Mayo Friday, bringing the hospital’s total to 25 and the Santa Clarita Valley’s total to 61, according to public health officials.

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