Category: Health & Safety

While fully vaccinated/boosted individuals are less likely to experience severe disease requiring hospitalization, Orange County is now considered a “high transmission area” with hundreds and hundreds of new cases and re-infections of COVID-19 being reported across the County every day.

It’s that time of the year again — pool season! As temperatures rise, there’s nothing more fun for kids to do than splash away in the nearest pool.

January 20th marked the second anniversary of the first case of COVID-19 reported in the United States.

Since that time, more than 79 million cases have been reported throughout the nation and nearly one million of our fellow Americans have died from this horrible virus.

During the second week in January, the Orange County Health Care Agency reported 55,815 new cases of COVID-19 among our County’s residents.

Here in Irvine, there have been 5,555 new cases of COVID-19 reported among our Irvine neighbors this past week.

On January 10th, the OC Health Care Agency reported a staggering 22,945 new cases of COVID-19 for the day; and 964 patients hospitalized with COVID-19. (87% of those hospitalized are unvaccinated.)

During the same time period, there have been 7,710 new cases of COVID-19 reported here in Irvine, and we have lost another neighbor to the virus.

Throughout the pandemic, it has been very difficult for parents to separate fact from fiction from opinion.

I’m proud to be a member of a working group that has been established within the health care and education community to help families make data-driven decisions for their children.

Here in Orange County, we are in the midst of another severe surge of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, even though we have access to remarkably safe and effective vaccines.

These individuals have become vectors of disease for younger children (under 12) who are not yet eligible to be vaccinated.

Over the past month, California and Orange County cases of COVID-19 have increased. As the CDC has repeated, this is now a pandemic largely of the unvaccinated.

In order to stop the spread of this deadly virus once and for all, we must encourage everyone we know to get vaccinated, including children 12 years of age and older.

Parents have begun asking pediatricians if their children — who are too young to receive the COVID-19 vaccine — can take swim lessons this summer.

While a COVID-19 vaccine for younger children is not yet available, taking extra precautions can help lower the risk of COVID-19 exposure during swim lessons.

Vaccines are proving to be the way to navigate out of the COVID-19 pandemic. That is why it is important to vaccinate those eligible as quickly as possible. Currently, just under half of the residents in Orange County are fully vaccinated.

The Pfizer vaccine is now available for children 12 years of age and older. The majority of those working in the medical field have already had our children and grandchildren vaccinated. I encourage other parents to do this as well.

It’s that time of the year again — pool season!  As temperatures rise, there’s nothing more fun for kids to do than splash away in the nearest pool. However, we must also be aware of the dangers that come with access to swimming pools. 

Every year, we hear tragic stories about accidental drownings in backyard pools.  A 4-sided pool fence would prevent most of these tragedies from occurring.