Living
2020 was a rough year in sports
Sports
Our time to embrace hope — Page A4
Op-Ed
— Page B1
What can we learn from a truly awful year? — Page B5
enterprise THE DAVIS
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2020
Locals urged to stay home as Yolo surge continues
‘Miracle babies’
BY ANNE TERNUS-BELLAMY Enterprise staff writer
Separated 11-month-old conjoined twins Abigail and Micaela Bachinskiy get a wagon ride out of the pediatric ward of the UC Davis Medical Center on Tuesday. UCD HEALTH/ COURTESY PHOTO
Separated twins go home in time for Christmas Special to The Enterprise
connected at the head, were separated in a 24-hour separation surgery that spanned Oct. 24 and 25. They have spent nearly two months recovering at UC Davis Children’s Hospital.
SACRAMENTO — Christmas came a little early for the Bachinskiy family: formerly conjoined twins Abigail and Micaela were discharged from UC Davis Children’s Hospital on Dec. 23 and spent their first Christmas together at home. “I think it’s the best present of my life, to be home with them, my nice, beautiful, healthy girls,” said mom Liliya Miroshnik. The 11-month-old craniopagus conjoined twins, born
“They are healthy and happy and their futures are bright,” said pediatric neurosurgeon Michael Edwards, who has been caring for the girls since birth. He stopped by to wish them well and walk them out. “So many people in our hospital, at all levels, have been touched by
these girls and their story,” he said. It was a bittersweet sendoff for the hospital staff, many of whom have been involved in the girls’ care for nearly a year. “It’s been an emotional roller coaster,” said clinical nurse specialist Dawn Harbour, who spent much of the morning caring for and cuddling both girls, now nicknamed Abby and Mica. “It’s just miraculous that they’re separated,” said Harbour, fighting back tears. “We’re
just in awe and so thankful that we got to be part of a miracle here at UC Davis.” Hospital staff members waved and clapped as the girls traveled via wagon through the hallways on their way out, and several accompanied them all the way outside to say goodbye. It was another milestone in a year packed with them. Parents Liliya and Anatoliy have dubbed them “miracles”: the birth of their girls, taking them home for the first time via the UC Davis Children’s Hospital ambulance, a tissue expander surgery to create enough scalp
SEE SEPARATED, PAGE A9
Fauci: Vaccines should allow colleges to teach in person BY MADDIE BECK CalMatters While coronavirus cases are surging across California and overwhelming intensive care units, the country’s top infectious disease expert said last week he’s “cautiously optimistic” that college students can return to campus in the fall. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he anticipates that COVID19 vaccines will begin to become widely available to the general public in March and April, and that immunization combined with aggressive testing of students would bode well for an in-person school year. “If we do that efficiently, and the doses of vaccine come in … by the time we get to
VOL. 123, NO. 157
April, May, June, July, August, we can get the overwhelming majority of the people in this country vaccinated so that by the time we get to the 2021-2022 term, I think we could be in good shape,” Fauci said. Fauci made the comments in a livestreamed conversation with California State University Chancellor Tim White. The university, one of the first nationwide to pivot to online education this spring, announced last week it expects its nearly 500,000 students will return to in-person learning in the fall of 2021, citing the progress on producing COVID-19 vaccines. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has so far authorized two separate vaccines, made by Pfizer and Moderna, for inoculation against the virus. “While we are currently going through a
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Yolo County headed into the Christmas holiday weekend on more of a tsunami of new coronavirus cases than a surge. With 954 new cases reported during the week ending Dec. 24, the county was averaging 136 new cases a day. On Saturday, the county added 108 more. Whatever family gatherings and traveling that residents have engaged in since the beginning of the week will start showing up in the county’s case numbers in the next two weeks and any impact on local hospitals will follow after that. Earlier last week, county supervisors urged residents to stay home as much as possible throughout the holidays. “COVID-19 cases in Yolo County are at the highest level since the beginning of the pandemic,” Supervisor Jim Provenza of Davis said in an email message. “Yolo County hospitals are often at or near capacity. On many days, there are no intensive care beds available. Worse, hospitals outside our county are also experiencing a surge and cannot be relied
SEE SURGE, PAGE A6
State rings in 2021 with some new traffic laws
very difficult surge in the pandemic, there is light at the end of the tunnel,” White said in announcing the plan. As President-elect Joe Biden’s selected chief medical adviser, Fauci will work with the Biden administration to prioritize vaccinating teachers and doing surveillance testing at K-12 schools and universities to hasten the return to in-person learning, he said. No decision has been made on whether the CSU system will require students or professors to receive a COVID-19 vaccination or what role campus health centers might play in vaccine distribution, CSU spokesperson Mike Uhlenkamp wrote in an email. However, there is precedent for
SACRAMENTO — As 2020 comes to a close, the California Highway Patrol sent out a reminder to highlight some new roadway safety laws that take effect in 2021. License points for distracted driving (AB 47, Daly; 2019): Using a cell phone in a handheld manner while driving is currently punishable by a fine. Beginning July 1, violating the hands-free law for a second time within 36 months of a prior conviction for the same offense will result in a point being added to a driver’s record.
SEE VACCINES, PAGE A6
SEE TRAFFIC, PAGE A9
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