Henry Mayo announces additional COVID-19-related death

Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital officials confirmed Wednesday that one additional person had died at the hospital due to complications related to COVID-19, bringing the total number of deaths within the Santa Clarita Valley to 21.

Due to patient privacy policy, the hospital declined to give any information about the newly reported deceased other than to say that the patient died within the past 24 hours, according to hospital spokesman Patrick Moody.

The hospital also released its latest figures Wednesday, which reported that 1,824 patients had been tested — many of whom have been tested more than once — with 227 tests returning positive, 1,810 negative and 17 still pending, Moody said. A total of eight people remained in the hospital for treatment, and 84 had since recovered and been discharged.

The number of coronavirus cases within the SCV, which includes an outbreak at Pitchess Detention Center, continued to climb Wednesday, as 76 new cases were reported in the local area by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health in the past 24 hours.

While the total number of cases in the SCV has reached at least 1,754, a large percentage

of those cases can be attributed to the Pitchess Detention Center, which has been experiencing an outbreak for a number of weeks and reportedly has a total of 953 inmates in all four of its jails that have tested positive for COVID-19, per Public Health’s latest figures.

Though these numbers are expected to later be included in Castaic’s numbers, Public Health officials confirmed Tuesday that the Pitchess Detention Center is in the midst of undergoing mass testing, which has caused a large discrepancy between Castaic’s numbers and those being reported at the jails.

Public Health officials have also said that due to reporting delays, numbers in a region’s count may not align with outbreak investigation counts presented for correctional facilities. They were unavailable to clarify Castaic’s figures, minus the inmate tallies, as of the publication of this story.

On Saturday, Pitchess’ numbers more than doubled what had last been reported Thursday and have continued to rise since, reaching triple what was reported just one week ago.

Countywide figures

Countywide, the total number of COVID-19 cases reached 58,234 Wednesday, with 1,155 new cases reported in the past 24 hours, per Public Health.

In addition, Public Health reported 46 new deaths related to COVID-19, bringing the total to 2,489 countywide.

Of those who died: 34 were over the age of 65, 11 of whom had underlying health conditions; six were between the ages of 41-65, one of whom had underlying health conditions; and one person was between the ages of 18-40. The remaining deaths were reported by the city of Long Beach, which has its own public health department.

As of Wednesday, 6,680 people who tested positive for COVID-19, or 11% of all positive cases, have been hospitalized at some point during their illness, according to Public Health. There are currently 1,422 people who are hospitalized, 26% of whom are in the ICU and 17% who are on ventilators.

Public Health reported Wednesday the number of SCV cases, including all area health care providers’ daily figures and Pitchess Detention Center, totaled 1,754, but the total will need to be adjusted once the Pitchess numbers are correctly tallied.

Currently, broken down by region, Public Health is reporting the numbers as follows:

▪ City of Santa Clarita: 801

▪ Unincorporated — Acton: 11

▪ Unincorporated — Agua Dulce: 9

▪ Unincorporated — Bouquet Canyon: 1

▪ Unincorporated — Canyon Country: 34

▪ Unincorporated — Castaic: 821 (majority of Castaic cases come from Pitchess Detention Center; exact number unavailable)

▪ Unincorporated — Lake Hughes: 1

▪ Unincorporated — Newhall: 1

▪ Unincorporated — Placerita Canyon: 0

▪ Unincorporated — San Francisquito Canyon/Bouquet Canyon: 0

▪ Unincorporated — Sand Canyon: 0

▪ Unincorporated — Saugus: 4

▪ Unincorporated — Saugus/ Canyon Country: 0

▪ Unincorporated — Stevenson Ranch: 34

▪ Unincorporated — Val Verde: 28

▪ Unincorporated — Valencia: 9