Laguna Beach Unified School District rolls out COVID-19 dashboard

The Laguna Beach Unified School District rolled out a COVID-19 dashboard on Wednesday, a measure intended to provide transparency as it relates to the number of confirmed cases among staff and students at its schools.

El Morro Elementary and Top of the World Elementary, the district’s two elementary schools, welcomed students back on campus as the district commenced with its hybrid learning model on Oct. 5.

The district also has two secondary schools in Thurston Middle School and Laguna Beach High School, both of which continue to conduct distance learning.

The dashboard shows the total number of students and staff at each school, the confirmed positive cases among students and staff over the previous two weeks, the percentage of a school’s population that its cases make up during the same two-week period and the cumulative total cases at each school since Aug. 24.

Within the past two weeks, the school population of Top of the World Elementary and Laguna Beach High have each had one confirmed positive test. Voluntary testing for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, has been offered by the district.

District officials indicated that in the event of a confirmed positive test, the district will work with the Orange County Health Care Agency to conduct contact tracing for those who have been in close contact, within six feet of the infected individual for 15 minutes or more.

Those considered to be close contacts of a confirmed positive case will be given directions for self-isolation.

If a student has tested positive for COVID-19 or is showing symptoms, the district is asking parents to keep their child at home and contact their school’s nurse. Best practices of handwashing, physical distancing and wearing a face covering are also encouraged.

The Orange County Health Care Agency reported 31 coronavirus deaths and 153 new infections in its latest numbers released on Thursday.

Among the reported deaths were 17 skilled nursing facility residents and two assisted living facility residents. The county’s death toll due to the virus rose to 1,391. The cumulative cases seen in the county is 56,436.

Currently, there are 164 hospitalized because of the virus, and 66 of those patients are being treated in intensive care units.

An additional 6,623 tests for COVID-19 were reported within the last day, taking the total number of tests administered to 970,212. Approximately 50,459 people in the county have recovered from fighting the virus, the healthcare agency estimated.

The county resides in the second, red tier, possessing seven-day averages of 4.6 daily new cases per 100,000 residents and a testing positivity rate of 3.5%. Those numbers come with a seven-day lag.

Below are the coronavirus case counts and deaths for select cities in Orange County:

• Santa Ana: 10,843 cases; 301 deaths
• Anaheim: 9,640 cases; 301 deaths
• Huntington Beach: 2,493 cases; 81 deaths
• Costa Mesa: 1,917 cases; 41 deaths
• Irvine: 1,774 cases; 13 deaths
• Newport Beach: 1,182 cases; 26 deaths
• Fountain Valley: 533 cases; 19 deaths
• Laguna Beach: 236 cases; fewer than five deaths

Here are the case counts by age group, followed by deaths:

• 0 to 17: 4,098 cases; one death
• 18 to 24: 8,510 cases; four deaths
• 25 to 34: 12,090 cases; 20 deaths
• 35 to 44: 8,979 cases; 38 deaths
• 45 to 54: 9,133 cases; 111 deaths
• 55 to 64: 6,760 cases; 198 deaths
• 65 to 74: 3,384 cases; 275 deaths
• 75 to 84: 1,913 cases; 302 deaths
• 85 and older: 1,519 cases; 442 deaths

Updated figures are posted daily at occovid19.ochealthinfo.com/coronavirus-in-oc. For information on getting tested, visit occovid19.ochealthinfo.com/covid-19-testing.

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