First child death from COVID reported in Stanislaus County as crisis intensifies
Stanislaus County’s top health official said Tuesday the county received the first report of a child who died from COVID-19.
Dr. Julie Vaishampayan, county health officer, reported the death during an update to the county Board of Supervisors on the coronavirus crisis.
The age and gender of the child was not released. Vaishampayan said the child had severe underlying medical conditions.
The county Health Services Agency did not release details on the county’s first pediatric death related to the coronavirus pandemic.
“We won’t be releasing any further details regarding the child in order to maintain confidentiality,” said Kamlesh Kaur, a spokesperson for county health services.
As of last week, the California Department of Public Health had reported 268,121 coronavirus infections among children age zero to 17 and six pediatric deaths.
Vaishampayan told supervisors that COVID-19 cases in hospital intensive care units reached a high point of 78 over the weekend. And she expected a “surge on top of a surge” in coronavirus infections in the next few weeks. The ICU count dropped to 66 patients Monday.
Hospitals in Southern California are on crisis plans for rationing care and conserving oxygen for COVID-stricken patients who need it the most. Vaishampayan said hospitals in this county are getting to the place where care is going to be impacted.
Stanislaus is part of a 12-county San Joaquin Valley region that’s often reported by the state to have intensive care units that are completely full.
Health officials have feared that holiday gatherings in December, along with New Year’s parties last week, would push the COVID-19 caseload even higher and stress already crowded hospitals.
A county dashboard reported 445 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, 329 Sunday and a two-day total of 1,006 cases Saturday after not reporting New Year’s Day. The county experienced its highest one-month death toll with 188 deaths in December, including 58 the week of Christmas.
The county of 562,000 residents has now recorded 631 deaths, which is the second highest COVID mortality rate among counties in California.
About 80 percent of the COVID deaths in Stanislaus County have been people age 65 or older; 12 percent have been age 55 to 64, 6 percent 45 to 54 and 3 percent 44 or younger.
Vaccinations are promoted
County officials are looking to vaccinations as a possible salvation after 10 months of battling coronavirus outbreaks.
About 19,000 doses of vaccine have been allocated to Stanislaus County, which has been going into the arms of nurses and other health care workers who see COVID-stricken patients in hospitals.
Paramedics and other first responders are also in line for vaccinations; in addition, CVS and Walgreens pharmacies are busy with a federal program to vaccinate residents and employees in nursing homes and assisted living centers.
But state overseers and the county still have a long way to go in vaccinating workers in primary care clinics, home health care, dental offices and other essential work settings.
Bill O’Brien, a businessman and former county supervisor, said small businesses have taken a huge hit during the pandemic. He urged the county to push vaccinations as the key solution to the crisis.
“It’s the only way we get out of this mess,” O’Brien said. “Let’s get those shots into arms.”
Supervisor Terry Withrow took time at Tuesday’s meeting to defend the county’s pandemic response and actions to deal with the health crisis.
He said an emergency operations center was established in March and has worked around the clock. He also listed efforts to bring food and household supplies to infected people isolating at home, measures to protect the homeless, bolstering of testing and contact tracing, grant support for business owners, outreach to hard hit communities and efforts including public health services and mental health.
The county received $108 million in federal and state funding last year for responding to the pandemic and mitigating the local impacts. Top county officials have often said they won’t actively enforce health orders issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Withrow since last summer has pushed for reopening all schools against the advice of health experts.
“The county is doing everything we can for this community to get us through this crisis,” Withrow said.
This story was originally published January 5, 2021 at 2:23 PM.
