At California hospitals, many children are coming in with COVID — not for COVID
SAN DIEGO — A unicorn stuffed animal kept the little girl company in the special infectious-disease unit at Rady Children's Hospital.
The pink sign on Rachel Ward's door warned that extra precautions were needed and that the door should remain closed. The 6-year-old could have one visitor in the room with her.
Rachel was one of 28 coronavirus-positive children in the San Diego hospital on a recent Wednesday. They ranged in age from 2 weeks to 17 years old.
The number of COVID-19 patients at Rady Children's Hospital rose from a weekly average of five in the first week of December to 28 in the first week of January. For at least a year, there had been 30 rooms set up to accommodate COVID-19 patients, but the hospital recently set up an additional 15 because of the omicron surge.
"This is definitely the
