The Orange County Health Department is now reporting two children younger than 10 are being treated in intensive care units for COVID-19.

Orange County Health Commissioner Dr. Irina Gelman says the two children were hospitalized with severe symptoms of the virus. She says they're currently seeing the most significant spike in child cases of the entire pandemic.

"Throughout the entirety of the pandemic, we have not seen numbers as high in our population 18 and under,” Dr. Gelman says.

Nearly a quarter of all cases of the virus in the county are children.

Orange County currently has more than 1,000 active cases of COVID-19, with 60 people hospitalized with severe symptoms. Health officials say that number is up from six people hospitalized a few weeks ago.

Dr. Gelman addressed the legislature on the recent surge in cases, primarily among the un-vaccinated, and discussed a possible county-wide mask mandate for kids going back to school.

Dr. Gelman says out of nearly 50,000 cases in Orange County to date, roughly 10% of those infections have been among children.