January 7, 2021
(OCR) Orange County officials reported Thursday, Dec. 6, another local child younger than 5 has died of complications related to COVID-19 infection.
The county reported 6,266 new COVID-19 cases Thursday amid this new winter surge and also logged two more fatalities, increasing the overall death toll to 5,903.
OC Health Care Agency officials reported the child was among those who died in December. County officials did not say whether the child was a boy or a girl.
“We have lost another precious young life to this terrible virus; it is our third pediatric death in Orange County since the start of the pandemic,” Dr. Clayton Chau, HCA director and county health officer, said in a statement. “This is yet another somber reminder that we must continue to do everything we can to protect our loved ones, especially our little ones under 5 years of age who are not able to be vaccinated.”
County officials reported the death of a child younger than 5 in August, and the first child reported in the county to have died of the virus was a 14-year-old girl in Aug. 2020.