The baby’s father was the first to get sick.
As a cook in Los Angeles, Ramon Lopez never stopped going to the restaurant while other kinds of workers could log in from home. He ran all the family’s errands, buying groceries and putting gas in the car.
He developed a fever, dry cough and body pain. When he lost his sense of smell, his wife, Florida Santiago, took him to a hospital where he tested positive for COVID-19, she recounted.
A week later, 8-month-old Jesus started fussing and had a similar dry cough for several days. Thankfully, he never got a fever, his mother said, but Baby Jesus tested positive. Then Santiago got sick, too, and is awaiting test results for herself and the couple’s three other children.
“Since this began we have been trying very hard to take care of the kids and ourselves,” said Santiago, whose family of six shares a one-bedroom apartment. “The only thing we can think is that when my husband went out to work. But we just don’t know.”
As COVID-19 ravages California and the nation, the number of children infected is also rising, especially among Latino children. They are testing positive at higher rates than other groups of children, accounting for the majority of all California cases among those under 18. Latino minors make up 67% of the cases where race/ethnicity is known, despite being only 48% of the state’s population of kids.
Comments (0)