TimesOC: ‘Highest number ever’ of kids battling COVID at Children’s Hospital of Orange County
Good morning. It’s Wednesday, Jan. 19. I’m Carol Cormaci, bringing you today’s TimesOC newsletter with the latest roundup of news and events.
Seven million. Let that number sink in a bit. Our state has recorded more than 7 million coronavirus cases after its fastest accumulation of reported infections in the history of the pandemic, according to a news story published Tuesday by our colleagues Luke Money and Rong Gong Lin II. “The unprecedented count, recorded in California’s databases late Monday, comes one week after the state tallied its 6 millionth coronavirus case.”
In O.C., there were 24,639 new COVID-19 cases, the Orange County Health Care Agency reported during a news conference Tuesday afternoon. Nearly 6,000 county residents have died from the disease since 2020 with 17 additional deaths reported.
As coronavirus cases continue to increase here, public health officials report the “highest number ever” of sick children being treated at an O.C. hospital during this pandemic, my colleague Priscella Vega reports.
Fifteen pediatric patients, 14 of them placed in the intensive care unit, were being treated for COVID-19 at Children’s Hospital of Orange County as of yesterday afternoon, said Dr. Clayton Chau, director of the agency.
Earlier this month, the county reported that a third child under the age of 5 had died in December from COVID-19 complications. No vaccine has been authorized for children in that age group.
Chau said Tuesday “the health system is really, really overtaxed” and that the number of healthcare
providers who are available to help has shrunk because they’re either tired or are infected with the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
On a recent day Vega interviewed Wynter Ho, a 26-year-old hairstylist who, after being hospitalized for seven long months with COVID, now believes in the value of being vaccinated against the coronavirus that can cause it. Ho was seriously ill with the disease and has had to relearn how to speak and how to move her body.
Ho’s recuperating at her mom’s Garden Grove home and looks forward to the day when she’s strong enough to return to work. She says the first thing she did after being released from the hospital was to get vaccinated.
“Get vaccinated even if you feel you don’t go out too much,” she said. “You just never know. Better be safe than sorry.”
MORE NEWS
— Everyday services we take for granted are again this winter being affected by the pandemic, from newspaper deliveries to trash pickups. For example, Costa Mesa Sanitary District, which provides waste-hauling services to 25,000 residential customers in Costa Mesa and portions of Newport Beach and unincorporated Orange County, is reporting service delays due to a shortage of truck drivers.
— A Long Beach man died Sunday during an excursion to the Elly oil platform off the coast of Huntington Beach. Theodore “Ted” Watler, 64, became separated from a dive group who had hired a commercial vessel to take them out to the aging platform, a popular site for divers, that morning.
— Some O.C. businesses are part of a group of restaurants that are suing Farmers Insurance, alleging the company breached contracts and didn’t compensate them for losses during the coronavirus pandemic. The lawsuit includes Black Trumpet Tapas Bistro and Wine Bar and Capone’s Italian Cucina of Huntington Beach, both owned by Chef Dino Ferraro. Newport Beach-based Fly N Fish Oyster Bar and Grill, located on the Balboa Peninsula, is also part of the suit, as are Starr Products of Santa Clarita, Centerpark Cafe of San Diego and NJND LLC, a San Diego restaurant and retail property.
— Huntington Beach City Councilwoman Kim Carr, who served as the city’s mayor last year, announced Tuesday she’s running for the newly redrawn state Senate seat in District 36.
LIFE & LEISURE
— The Pageant of the Masters over the weekend held an open casting call for its next show, “Wonderful World,” set to run nightly inside Laguna Beach’s Irvine Bowl from July 7 to Sept. 2. Those who aspired to participate in the 2022 show’s tableaux vivants were measured and checked for their ability to hold a pose for 90 full seconds.
— Costa Mesa residents on Friday celebrated the grand opening of Ike’s Love and Sandwiches, a San Francisco Bay Area phenomenon with a cult following that began expanding five years ago. “It’s literally anything you want on a sandwich — we don’t say no,” namesake owner Ike Shehadeh told reporter Sara Cardine. “We don’t have many basic sandwiches. It’s basically a sandwich you cannot make at home.”
SPORTS
— Eight years ago, in his soccer debut in Southern California, Erick “Cubo” Torres scored the winning goal in his first game with Chivas USA. His former team folded in 2014 but Torres is back, with the Orange County Soccer Club announcing it has signed the former Mexican national team forward for 2022, writes L.A. Times sports reporter Kevin Baxter.
— Ducks winger Troy Terry along with centers Steven Stamkos of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Nazem Kadri of the Colorado Avalanche and Mika Zibanejad of the New York Rangers, won the final roster spots for All-Star Weekend Feb. 4 and 5 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas as a result of fan voting, according to this Associated Press report.
— According to a report by our colleague Mike DiGiovanna, Patrick O’Neal, who served as host of the Angels’ pregame and postgame shows, will move to the booth to serve as a part-time play-by-play announcer, the team and Bally Sports West announced late last week.
—The Orange County baseball community is in mourning after Laguna Beach High baseball coach Jeff Sears, the most successful coach in the program’s history, died Sunday morning at Mission Hospital in Laguna Beach. He was 55.
STAY IN TOUCH
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