Benicia and Solano: COVID cases, hospitalizations exploding – never saw anything like this!

NOTE: The information below is not the latest.  TAP HERE for today’s latest information.

January 12, 2022 SUMMARY: Solano County recorded 5,205 new infections in 2 days! 2 new COVID-related deaths and 63 previously undisclosed hospitalizations.  Solano & Benicia in EXTREME HIGH rate of transmission.  Nearly 1,000 children and young teens test positive.

Solano Public Health COVID dashboard, Wednesday, January 12:

DEATHS: Solano reported 2 new deaths today, one age 18-49 and one 65+, both Black.  Trending: The County reported 27 COVID deaths in September, 18 in October, 14 in November, 22 in December, and 12 already in January (48 of us have died over 59 days since the uptick beginning on November 15).  A total of 363 Solano residents have now died of COVID or COVID-related causes over the course of the pandemic.

CASES BY AGE GROUP: The County reported 5,205 new COVID cases today!  949 of these 5,205 new cases (18%) were youth and children under 18.  The majority, 3,026 cases (58%) were age 18-49.  852 cases (16%) were age 50-64, and 377 (7%) were 65+.
BELOW: color-coded chart shows CASES SINCE THE OUTBREAK BEGAN BY AGE GROUP, each as a percentage of TOTAL CASES SINCE THE OUTBREAK BEGAN.  Increases are in red and decreases are in green as reported by Solano County since April of 2020.  Note the steady increase among children and youth of Solano County.  The population of those age 0-17 in Solano County is roughly 22%.COMPARE – U.S. cases among children and youth aged 0-17 as percentage of total cases is 16.4% as of today, up dramatically from 15.9% at last report.  (From the CDC covid-data-tracker.)

COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION RATE:  Solano has risen dramatically and almost daily since December 27 into an EXTREMELY HIGH transmission rate, with a total of 6,196 new cases over the last 7 days, up from 1,829 at last report.  CDC FORMULA: Based on Solano County’s population, 450 or more cases in 7 days places Solano in the CDC’s population-based definition of a HIGH transmission rate.  We would need to drop below 225 cases in 7 days to rate as having only MODERATE community transmission.

ACTIVE CASES: Solano’s 5,666 ACTIVE cases shot up dramatically today from the County’s January 10 report of 1,143 active cases.

CASES BY CITY – Wednesday, January 12:

  • Benicia added 290 new cases in the last 2 days, a total of 2,188 cases since the outbreak began.  Benicia has seen 333 new infections in the last 7 days, raising far above the CDC’s HIGH rate of community transmission. >(For a city with Benicia’s population, anything over 27 is considered HIGH)(see chart below).  Based on Benicia population, MODERATE is defined as less than 14 cases over the last 7 days, SUBSTANTIAL is 14-27 cases, and HIGH is 28 or more cases.  Benicia will need to maintain fewer than 14 new cases-per-7-days for 30 consecutive days before relaxing its mask mandateNote above that Solano County is currently also experiencing HIGH transmission.

  • Dixon added 271 new cases today, total of 3,120 cases.
  • Fairfield added 1,328 new cases today, total of 15,191 cases.
  • Rio Vista reported 63 new cases today, total of 755 cases.
  • Suisun City added 364 new cases today, total of 4,016 cases.
  • Vacaville added 914 new cases today, a total of 14,536 cases.
  • Vallejo added 1,969 new cases today, a total of 17,671 cases.
  • Unincorporated added 6 new cases today, a total of 164 cases.

POSITIVE TEST RATE:  Solano County’s 7-Day Percent Positive Test Rate shot up after Christmas and has continued through today’s incredibly high 32%.  The County’s black and blue LINE GRAPH has the best detail, but those details are difficult to read, and the numbers are adjusted retroactively each day.  I’ve created a table here to show the County’s reading in today’s line graph. 

Tap image to enlarge. (Interactive version: Solano COVID dashboard.)

COMPARE: Today the California rate jumped to 19.4%.  [Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Center]  The U.S. rate fell slightly today to 28.59%. [Source: CDC COVID Data Tracker.] 

HOSPITALIZATIONS:

CURRENT hospitalizations: rose today from 103 to 112 persons, our highest number since September 8, 2021. (See also TOTAL hospitalizations, next below…)

TOTAL hospitalizations – PLUS 63.  Solano County’s TOTAL hospitalized over the course of the pandemic must be independently discovered in the County’s occasional update of hospitalizations by Age Group and by Race/Ethnicity.  Solano updated its age and race hospitalizations charts today. Today’s age chart shows 63 previously unreported hospitalizations.  (Details below.)  Solano has reported 185 new hospitalizations by age group since December 1, including 119 just since Christmas.  Our total since the beginning of the outbreak is now 3,346 hospitalizations.

ICU Bed Availability in Solano County fell from 30% at last report to 29% today, still in the Yellow danger zone.

Ventilator Availability  was down sharply from 77% to 67%.


HOW DOES TODAY’S REPORT COMPARE?  See recent reports and others going back to April 20, 2020 on my ARCHIVE of daily Solano COVID updates (an excel spreadsheet).


>The data on this page is from the Solano County COVID-19 Dashboard.  The Dashboard is full of much more information and updated Monday, Wednesday and Friday around 4 or 5pm.  On the County’s dashboard, you can hover a mouse or click on an item for more information.  Note the tabs at top for “Summary, Demographics” and “Vaccines.”  Click here to go to today’s Solano County Dashboard.

See also my BENINDY ARCHIVE of daily Solano COVID updates (an excel spreadsheet).  I have also archived the hundreds of full CORONAVIRUS REPORTS posted here almost daily on the Benicia Independent since April 2020.

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