Benicia CA, Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Coronavirus, Covid 19, Delta variant, Hospitalizations, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Department, Vaccine

Solano reports another 3 deaths and a remarkable increase in COVID case numbers

By Roger Straw, Wednesday, September 1, 2021

Wednesday, September 1: Solano reports 1,044 new infections, 3 more deaths, soaring community transmission levels.

Solano County COVID dashboard SUMMARY:
[Sources: see below.]

DEATHS: 3 new deaths were reported today, 14 in the last two weeks. Today’s deaths included one of us age 50-64 and two 65+.  Today’s deaths included two Latinx persons and one White person.  Total Solano deaths over the course of the pandemic rose to 273.

CASES: The County reported  a whopping 1,044 new COVID cases in the last two days, 522 per day, our highest since January 25.

7-DAY CASE RATE: Over the last 7 days, Solano has seen 2,192 new cases, substantially over the CDC’s level for “High Community Transmission”.  Based on Solano County population of 449,432, the CDC would rate us in “Substantial” transmission with only 225 cases over the last 7 days.  Double that, or 450 cases in the last 7 days would rank us in “High” transmission.  Solano County’s 2,192 cases is NEARLY FIVE TIMES the CDC’s High rate of transmission!

YOUTH CASES: Case numbers also show a startling increase in the percentage of new cases among young persons age 0-17, increasing another two tenths of a percent to a new high of 13.7% of total cases.  That doesn’t sound like much until you consider that the percentage of youth cases increased very, very slowly over the course of the pandemic, starting below 6%, and only gradually reaching 12% in mid-April of 2021.  The percent of youth has jumped a full 0.7% since mid-August.

ACTIVE CASES: Solano’s 1,056 ACTIVE cases is down from Monday’s 1,097, but alarmingly up from 212 on July 2, and in the range we experienced during the deadly surge last winter.

POSITIVE TEST RATE:  Our 7-day average percent positivity rate was 13.8% today, down from 14.5% on Monday, but still well over the purple tier margin, nearly 4 times today’s California rate of 3.6% and over 1.25 times today’s U.S. rate of 10.8%. [Source: Johns Hopkins]  WARNING: The Delta Variant is here in Solano County and spreading fast.  Time to mask up again – watch out and take care!  

HOSPITALIZATIONS:

CURRENT hospitalizations were down today from 143 to 127 persons, and still in the range we saw during the winter surge.

ICU Bed Availability was still shockingly low today at only 16% of ICU beds available, in the yellow danger zone.  This was up only slightly from Monday’s 13%.  We’ve not seen rates this low since January 2021.

Ventilator Availability was down today from 60% to 51%, and also continuing in the range we saw last winter.

TOTAL hospitalizations  The County’s Monday-Friday dashboard shows an intake/discharge total of CURRENTLY hospitalized cases (above), but never reports on the TOTAL hospitalized over the course of the pandemic.  That total must be independently discovered in the County’s occasional update of the Hospitalizations by Age Group chart.  The County updated its Hospitalizations charts today.  See the Age Group chart and the Race / Ethnicity chart below.  Interestingly, the total doesn’t square with the total by age groups.

FACE MASKS… Good News in Benicia

GOOD NEWS!  Last week, Benicia City Council passed a citywide indoors mask mandate. The Council heard opposition from Dr. Bela Matyas, and support from Dr. Bonnie Hamilton.  The public spoke almost entirely in favor of a mandate and included a number of medical professionals.  Councilmembers debated on various finer points, and passed the resolution on a 5-0 vote. The mandate went into effect immediately. Everyone 4 years old and up must now wear a mask indoors in public places, even those of us who are vaccinated.  The mask resolution, press release, and a flyer now appear on the City website.  For those interested in reviewing the Benicia City Council procedings of August 24, the video is posted on the City website, at benicia.granicus.com/player/clip/3528?view_id=1…. The mask mandate discussion begins around minute 23.

Benicia is the first Solano city to take action despite the County’s lack of strong guidance on masks.  In the Bay Area, Solano County REMAINS the only holdout against even RECOMMENDING masks in public indoors spaces.  Hopefully, Dr. Matyas will learn from Benicia, and make the necessary difficult decisions, but all reports are that he intends not to do so. 

Please mask indoors in public places now, and maybe even indoors in crowded gatherings at home with vaccinated family and friends!  PLEASE talk to anyone you know who isn’t vaccinated.  This thing ain’t over yet!

Cases by City on Wednesday, September 1:
  • Benicia added 43 new cases today, a total of 1,319 cases since the outbreak began.  Benicia is more than 3 times the CDC’s definition of HIGH community transmission level.  For details see Benicia far exceeding CDC’s measure of HIGH TRANSMISSION of COVID-19.  [Note that Solano County itself is rated in high transmission, and Solano’s 6 other cities are likely also individually experiencing high transmission.  The BenIndy does not have time to do all of their calculations just now.  Stay tuned.]
  • Dixon added 48 new cases today, total of 2,310 cases.
  • Fairfield added 270 new cases today, total of 11,226 cases.
  • Rio Vista added 13 new cases today, total of 518 cases.
  • Suisun City added 51 new cases today, total of 2,921 cases.
  • Vacaville added 322 new cases today, a total of 10,892 cases.
  • Vallejo added 294 new cases today, a total of 12,204 cases.
  • Unincorporated added 3 new cases today, a total of 131 cases (population figures not available).

Continue reading Solano reports another 3 deaths and a remarkable increase in COVID case numbers →

#Masks4All, #wearamask, Benicia CA, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Delta variant, Mandatory face coverings, Solano County Health Department, Vallejo CA

Vallejo Votes Yes on Mask Mandate

Solano’s biggest city joins Benicia, votes to go its own way

NBC Bay Area News, August 31, 2021

Vallejo Adopts Indoor Mask Mandate

Solano County is the only Bay Area county that still does not have a mask mandate, but on Tuesday, its biggest city voted to go its own way.

Coronavirus, Covid 19, Delta variant, Hospitalizations, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Officer Bela Matyas, Vaccine

Solano Health Officer inaction proving wrong – cases climbing, hospital beds nearing capacity

Solano County reaches grim COVID-19 milestone, still no regional mask mandate

(Graphic by Solano NewsNet)

SolanoNews.net, by Matthew Keys, August 30, 2021

Solano County’s top health officer is still resisting calls for a region-wide indoor mask mandate and other proactive steps toward combatting the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, even as new data shows the rate of infection, hospitalization and deaths attributed to the virus continues to climb.

New information released this week showed more than 40,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Solano County, with an additional 677 cases confirmed between last Friday evening and Monday afternoon.

The actual rate of positive cases is likely higher, since data is reported on a delay due to the methods used by officials in Solano County and elsewhere to confirm new cases.

For weeks, Solano County Public Health Officer Dr. Bela Matyas has resisted calls for a mandate that would force customers and others in indoor public spaces to wear face masks. That lack of action prompted city officials in Benicia to implement an indoor mask mandate of their own; officials in Vallejo is debating a similar requirement this week.  [Vallejo order approved – see update.]

Local hospitals are feeling the crunch of this inaction: Federal data cited by KCRA-TV (Channel 3) revealed NorthBay Medical Center in Fairfield is quickly running out of available hospital bed space, including in its intensive care unit. Similar situations are playing out at hospitals operated by Kaiser Permanente, the television station reported.

In local media interviews, Dr. Matyas claims an indoor mask mandate would do little to curb the spread of the coronavirus, including the more-contagious “Delta variant.” Without citing specific evidence, Dr. Matyas claims the majority of people who become infected with COVID-19 are exposed at private gatherings, not in public, and those calling for an indoor mask mandate are doing so for political reasons.

But in other Bay Area counties, the week-over-week rate of infection slowed and, in some cases, even dropped once indoor mask mandates were rolled out, according to data published by the New York Times and reviewed by Solano NewsNet. San Francisco and Marin counties have seen a sharp decline in new infections since implementing an indoor mask mandate in early August. Solano County, on the other hand, has the highest seven-day average of new cases, with well over 100 new cases reported each day, the data shows.

This week, Solano County officials reported four new deaths attributed to COVID-19 infections. Those four cases included two individuals who had received a COVID-19 vaccine, which does not prevent infection.

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Citizen Oversight Board, Police violence, Solano County Sheriff

Finally! Solano County Supervisors schedule discussion on Sheriff oversight board

Solano supervisors to discuss possible new oversight of sheriff’s office

JohnGlidden.com, by Scott Morris, Aug. 30, 2021
Solano County Sheriff Tom Ferrara

VALLEJO – The Solano County Board of Supervisors will have a discussion in September or October about possibly instituting a new oversight board of the Solano County Sheriff’s Office.

Such a board would be authorized under new state legislation passed last year that allows the supervisors to create an oversight board with subpoena power. Members of Benicia Black Lives Matter pushed for oversight following revelations that members of the sheriff’s office posted symbols associated with the Three Percenter anti-government group on social media.

Only Supervisor Monica Brown of Benicia supported even discussing an oversight board in previous meetings, but to add an item to the agenda requires two supervisors’ support. On Tuesday, Brown made a motion to agendize the discussion again and Supervisor Erin Hannigan supported it. Brown said there could be a meeting on the issue on Sept. 28 or Oct. 5.

Hannigan did not respond to questions about why she changed her mind about the discussion. But a new federal civil rights lawsuit filed in August alleged that sheriff’s deputies beat a Black woman unconscious for no reason during an encounter over mismatched license plates and then lied about it in reports. The sheriff’s office contends that the woman struck a deputy in the face, but body camera video doesn’t corroborate that statement.

“We’re happy, but why did it take a Black woman getting beaten unconscious for the board to take our request seriously enough to put the item on the agenda?” said Benicia Black Lives Matter co-founder Nimat Grantham. “Erin was the first person who I would expect to second that motion and she never did until now.”

Following revelations in February that members of the sheriff’s office had posted Three Percenter symbols on social media, members of Benicia Black Lives Matter wrote letters to the sheriff demanding an investigation and requested that the county’s civil grand jury take up the issue. Sheriff Tom Ferrara responded by saying that the FBI had cleared his deputies of any extremist affiliations, which the FBI disputed.

Then in April, members of Benicia Black Lives Matter called in to a Board of Supervisors meeting asking for the supervisors to institute new oversight of the sheriff’s office under AB 1185. But when Brown moved to add the discussion to the agenda in a future meeting, none of the other supervisors would support it.


Benicia Black Lives Matter continued to call in to meetings pushing for new oversight. During a meeting on May 4, the supervisors cut off Benicia Black Lives Matter co-founder Brandon Greene. Later, Solano County Republicans organized in opposition to the push for oversight, asking people to call in but not identify themselves as Republicans.

The allegations that sheriff’s deputies beat a Black woman unconscious and then lied about it in reports have renewed calls for oversight of the sheriff’s office. On Tuesday, NAACP Tri-City branch president Johnicon George called in to the Board of Supervisors meeting and said he was “disturbed” by video of the incident and “disappointed” that the supervisors have refused to have any discussion about oversight.

“I’m not confident that this body respects and cares about the African American community in Solano County,” he said, pointing out that the supervisors, none of whom are Black, also declined to institute diversity training for themselves.

Any oversight discussion would be unlikely to succeed as the three men on the board, one of whom is a former sheriff’s lieutenant, each have already endorsed Ferrara’s reelection as sheriff.

Grantham said that would not deter her or Benicia Black Lives Matter from continuing to push for oversight. “It’s probably going to be a fight, it’s going to take a lot of effort to get an oversight board or even a citizens’ advisory board,” she said. “But it’s just like when they were trying to desegregate the schools in the south and Gov. George Wallace was saying ‘over my dead body’ – it seemed impossible but it took a lot of effort.”

Scott Morris is an independent journalist in Oakland covering policing, protest and civil rights. If you appreciate his work please consider making a contribution.

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