KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
The Los Angeles County school reopening capacity has increased to 25 percent for “small cohorts” of students with high needs, officials said.
Over 1,000 schools in L.A. County have been approved for a limited return to campus in-person learning, for students with individualized education plans (IEPs), students requiring instruction for English as a Second Language (ESL) or students needing assessments or specialized in-school services, according to Dr. Barbara Ferrer, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
On those campuses approved, over 30,000 high-need students are allowed to return with classrooms limited to 12 students.
In addition, 153 applications have been received for students grades TK-2 to return to campus, with 29 of those waivers approved.
Schools can reopen for in-person instruction once their county has been in Tier 2 or “Substantial” tier for at least two weeks, upon approval from the public health department.
Ferrer further urged those who participated in large gatherings celebrating the recent Dodgers World Series win to self-quarantine for 14 days and get tested if they were potentially exposed to COVID-19.
An additional 1,351 Los Angeles County Coronavirus cases have reported Wednesday, bringing the cumulative total to 303,369, according to Ferrer.
The department noted that because of differences in test processing times and reporting lags, the new cases announced daily are likely collected over several days and sometimes include backlogs of test results.
“These issues have been addressed and we continue to improve our reporting systems. Public Health anticipates receiving additional backlog test results over the next few days,” reads a statement issued by the department on Thursday when the backlog first started to present itself in the daily count.
20 additional deaths were reported Wednesday, bringing the cumulative total in L.A. County to 7,040 deaths, according to public health.
Over 3,061,000 tests have been conducted as of Wednesday, with about 9 percent of those tests returning positive.
L.A. County remains in Tier 1 due to the current adjusted daily case rate of 8 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 3.7 percent which places the County in Tier 2 for this metric, according to public health.
There are 755 people currently hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Wednesday, 28 percent of which are in the ICU.
As of Wednesday, a total of 7,071 cumulative cases of COVID-19 since testing began in March. These include:
- 4,283 in the City of Santa Clarita*
- 174 in the unincorporated areas of Canyon Country
- 2,171 in Castaic*
- 38 in the unincorporated areas of Saugus
- 196 in Stevenson Ranch
- 52 in the unincorporated areas of Valencia
- 103 in the unincorporated areas of Val Verde
- 26 in the unincorporated areas of Newhall
- 10 in the unincorporated areas of Bouquet Canyon
- 11 in the unincorporated areas of Saugus/Canyon Country
- Seven in unincorporated Sand Canyon
Additionally, 85 cumulative cases were confirmed in nearby Acton as well as 33 in Agua Dulce.
As of Tuesday, Oct. 27, officials had recorded 1,876 cumulative cases among prisoners at the North County Correctional Facility, including 512 at the Peter J. Pitchess Detention Center. Those cases are distributed between both the City of Santa Clarita and Castaic totals.
An analysis of available data indicates that as of Tuesday, Oct. 27, approximately 26.6 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 Wednesday, Oct. 28, Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital has conducted 10,109 COVID-19 tests. Of those, 1,027 have tested positive, and 14 tests are still pending with Henry Mayo, according to Patrick Moody, spokesperson for the hospital.
There are 15 patients in the hospital as of Wednesday, while 299 patients have been discharged since the hospital’s first case was reported in March, according to Moody.
30 coronavirus deaths have been reported at Henry Mayo which are apart of at least 73 deaths across the Santa Clarita Valley.
See All Coronavirus Coverage: Coronavirus Coverage – COVID-19 Map
Ed. Note: Upon further investigation, 123 cases and two deaths reported earlier were not L.A. County residents.
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All kids need an education, so I guess because your kid is not getting three or more Fs he or she does not need to be back on campus. So if in-person learning helps can’t it help all kids? Do you have to be failing to deserve an education? How many of those kids had three or more Fs last year? Teachers keep saying they did not sign up to risk their lives, so is it okay to risk your life for a failing student, what about the students who were previously straight-A students and are barely holding on and about to have a nervous breakdown because they are not allowed any outlet. What about the uptick in drug overdoses and suicides? Stop picking and choosing and follow the science. We need to get back to normal.
When are the students with low needs going to get their day in the sun? We are Newhall Weak.