A nursing home in Huntington Beach has reported 74 cases of the coronavirus, 50 of them among its residents. Two of the residents – a 77-year-old and a 79-year-old – died over the last two days, a Huntington Valley Healthcare Center official said on Tuesday, April 21. Fourteen other patients are hospitalized, the official said, although it’s unknown how many of them are in need of intensive care. The remaining 34 patients are self-isolating in the Huntington Beach facility.

Chapman University is offering 20 rooms at its Panther Village apartments by the 5 Freeway in Orange for the city’s first responders to self-isolate away from their homes. “They are forced to be away from their loved ones while on the front line in Orange,” Chapman President Daniele Struppa said in a recent message to the campus community. “Our hope is that we can keep them safe and comfortable while they need to self-isolate.”

A judge won’t block the County of Orange from using the Laguna Hills Inn to house people who are homeless and have, or are at high risk of contracting, the coronavirus and need a place to be isolated. Orange County Superior Court Judge Thomas Delaney on Monday, April 20, tentatively ruled against a request for a temporary restraining order from the city of Laguna Hills and owners of four properties near the 76-room hotel.

Jordyn Block stumbled across a Facebook message from Stephanie Unger sent more than a month ago. “This is super random,” it read, “but I was just looking at my baby book and it says our moms were roommates at Mission Hospital when we were born. You were born an hour before me. “Also, I just had a baby 12/2/2019 and I heard you had twins in January 2020. That is so cool!”

Hundreds of people gathered in downtown San Clemente on Sunday, April 19, calling for the end of a state-mandated stay-at-home order aimed at curbing the spread of coronavirus. The protesters – tightly packed in defiance of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s social distancing guidelines – held American flags and signs with such slogans as “No Liberty, No Life, Re-open California,” and “I am an AMERICAN and I am FREE!” Another read, “Pandemics does NOT cancel our Constitutional rig

Laguna Hills has filed a lawsuit to block the county’s plan to use the 76-room Laguna Hills Inn for homeless people with coronavirus, saying it “poses a direct threat to the health and safety of the surrounding community.” The city filed the lawsuit on Tuesday, April 14, jointly with the owners of four buildings adjacent to the hotel. The owner of the hotel is also named in the suit.

Orange County officials ordered 1 million N95 respirator masks on March 16, but more than three weeks later, with demands for protective gear at an unprecedented level, the supplier can’t say when they might be delivered. Out of 1,203,000 N95 masks ordered since mid-March, 200,000 should be delivered on April 13.

San Juan Capistrano is looking at leveraging its City Hall property to create more affordable housing and new city headquarters. The city is entering into an exclusive negotiation agreement with nonprofit developer Jamboree Housing Corp. to explore building a new City Hall building and 40 affordable homes at the Paseo Adelanto property. The City Council approved the agreement Tuesday, April 7. “We have a duty as a city to address our affordable housing needs, but we also have really a serious

Two companies the Orange County Transportation Authority contracts with for drivers are laying off or furloughing employees as bus ridership drops during the coronavirus pandemic and service is reduced in response. The OCTA contracts with MV Transportation and First Transit for about 40% of the agency’s bus service, OCTA spokesman Eric Carpenter said in an e-mail. It’s own 650 drivers are not being affected by the job losses.

Every day, for eight hours a day, five phone-line staffers at the Korean Community Services in Buena Park are peppered with questions from people worried about coronavirus and its many related problems. “How can people stay insured if they lose their job?” “Will accepting unemployment insurance affect my immigration status?” “I feel bad; where can I get tested?” The non-profit, which runs health clinics in Orange County, is a hub for the region’s Korean-speaking community.

Worrying about going over the family’s home internet data cap wasn’t something Rick Stinson had considered when he reported for work this week as a biology and earth sciences teacher for Dana Hills High in Dana Point. But teaching over the computer from home, where his two sons are also on the web for much of the day getting their elementary school work done, the data cap is becoming an unexpected issue.

With a basket full of seashells and a poem on hand, Stacie Anne Williams walked around a Rancho Santa Margarita neighborhood Wednesday, March 25, to visit her 27 kindergarten students from Trabuco Mesa Elementary. It was the first time Williams saw her students in person since the Saddleback Valley Unified School District closed campuses nearly two weeks ago to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

An Orange County Fire Authority firefighter in Irvine has tested positive for the coronavirus, Fire Chief Brian Fennessy said Friday, March 20. The firefighter, who was stationed at Fire Station No. 4 near UC Irvine, came in contact with 24 other firefighters, who have been sent home for self-isolation for 14 days “out of an abundance of caution,” Fennessy said. The person is the first OCFA firefighter to test positive for the virus. As of Friday afternoon, the Orange County Health Care Agency

After a confusing few days of orders for limiting gatherings to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, Kent Peters had hoped to reopen his V’s Barbershop in Foothill Ranch on Friday with some new steps for keeping people healthy.

A controversial extension of the 241 Toll Road was officially dropped Thursday, March 12, likely ending a bitter debate that’s lasted more than two decades about how to best address transportation needs in south Orange County. Board members of the Transportation Corridor Agencies – which oversees the county’s toll roads – unanimously voted on Thursday to support instead extending Los Patrones Parkway to Avenida La Pata, concluding the study of how the 241 could be connected to the 5 Freeway. W

All community colleges in Orange County will soon teach most, if not all, classes online, as officials take measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The colleges follow many others in Southern California — including UC Irvine, Chapman, Cal State Fullerton, USC, UCLA and Cal State Long Beach — that have said they will transition to online instruction.

Cities across Orange County are canceling large gatherings and recreational programs and closing senior and community centers to help prevent the spread of coronavirus, as the number of cases continues to increase in Southern California. Most cities are following guidelines put out by Gov. Gavin Newsom late Wednesday, March 11, calling for all events with more than 250 people throughout the state to be postponed or canceled at least through the end of March.

Hangari Kalgooksu in Garden Grove’s Koreatown has no relationship to Hangari Kalguksu in Los Angeles’ Koreatown, 30 miles away. But both restaurants took a big business hit last week when a KakaoTalk post — it’s a Korean version of Whatsapp — listed a Hangari Kalguksu among restaurants a Korean Air flight attendant who tested positive for coronavirus visited while in Southern California. Yes, the flight attendant had tested positive, but she hadn’t eaten at either of those restaurants.

Ten years ago at the age of 17, Melanie Sanchez got sick for a month and found out she had a kidney the size of someone who is 7 years old. “It couldn’t support my body anymore,” she said. “So it broke down.” She had been waiting years on the list for a new kidney from St. Vincent Medical Center near downtown Los Angeles when she was told in January the hospital would shut down within weeks. Would her wait be delayed while she found a new doctor and was evaluated for treatment through a new h

Requests by eight Orange County school districts to raise a combined $2.5 billion through bond sales landed with a thud among many voters who may be growing weary of adding to debt paid through their taxes. With more than 150,000 ballots left to count, and another 60,000 or so mail-in-ballots expected to arrive by Friday, none of the school bond measures were surpassing the 55% threshold needed to pass, according to returns updated by the Orange County Registrar of Voters Wednesday evening, Mar