Category Archives: Benicia CA

COVID deaths increasing in Solano County

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

By Roger Straw, Monday, December 6, 2021
[See also New York Times, Coronavirus: What we know about Omicron.]

Monday, December 6: Solano County reports
5 new deaths and 154 new infections. Solano County remains in a SUBSTANTIAL rate of community transmission;  Benicia rates MODERATE transmission over past 7 days.

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

DEATHS: Solano reported 5 new deaths today.  The County reported 27 COVID deaths in September, 18 in October, 11 in November, and 12 so far in early December (23 in the last 19 days, since November 17).  Of the 5 new deaths, 2 were age 18-49, 1 was age 50-65 and 2 were 65+.  A total of 338 Solano residents have now died of COVID or COVID-related causes over the course of the pandemic.

CASES: The County reported 154 new COVID cases over the weekend.  CASES BY AGE GROUP: 37 of these 154 cases (24%) were youth and children under 18.  78 (51%) were age 18-49, 25  (16%) were age 50-64, and 14 (9%) were 65+.  BELOW: color-coded analysis of cases reported by age group, expressed as a percentage of total cases.  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 at 15.5% as of today. (From the CDC covid-data-tracker.)

COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION RATE: Over the last 7 days, Solano has seen SUBSTANTIAL community transmission, with 343 new cases (down from 368 on Friday).  CDC FORMULA: Based on Solano County’s population, 450 cases in 7 days would move Solano up into the CDC’s population-based definition of a HIGH transmission rate, and we will need to drop below 225 cases in 7 days to rate as having only MODERATE community transmission.

ACTIVE CASES: Solano’s 402 ACTIVE cases is up from last Friday’s 333, and still far above our summer rates.

CASES BY CITY on Monday, December 6:

  • Benicia added 7 new cases today, a total of 1,606 cases since the outbreak began, and 13 cases over the last 7 days.  This moves Benicia back into the MODERATE rate of community transmission for the first time since November 22 (see chart below)MODERATE is defined as less than 14 cases, based on Benicia population.  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 also currently experiencing SUBSTANTIAL transmission.

  • Dixon added 7 new cases today, total of 2,603 cases.
  • Fairfield added 36 new cases today, total of 12,631 cases.
  • Rio Vista reported 1 new case today, total of 635 cases.
  • Suisun City added 17 new cases today, total of 3,343 cases.
  • Vacaville added 47 new cases today, a total of 12,481 cases.
  • Vallejo added 38 new cases today, a total of 13,777 cases.
  • Unincorporated added 1 new case today, a total of 146 cases.

POSITIVE TEST RATE:  Solano’s 7-day percent positivity rate was 5.0% today, down from Friday’s 5.3%.  COMPARE: Today’s California rate is 1.4%.  [Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Center]  Today’s U.S. rate is 8.26%. [Source: CDC COVID Data Tracker.] 

HOSPITALIZATIONS:

CURRENT hospitalizations were down today from 22 to 21 persons, still above the range we saw during last summer.

TOTAL hospitalizations: 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 Public Health did not update its age and race hospitalizations charts today.  Last week, updates showed 156 previously unreported hospitalizations.  Solano hospitals have reported a total of 3,173 COVID patients since the beginning of the outbreak.  (Data on age is more reliable than that on race/ethnicity.)

ICU Bed Availability is down dramatically today, from 51% on Friday to only 29% today, falling once again into the County’s YELLOW danger zone.

Ventilator Availability today is down a bit today from 77% to 76%.

MASK MANDATE – ALERT!
Benicia’s mask mandate will remain in effect, but could be altered at City Council meeting TOMORROW – on December 7.
Vallejo also passed an indoors mask mandate on August 31.  In the Bay Area, Solano County REMAINS the only holdout against a mask mandate for public indoors spaces.

SOLANO COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS failed to consider an agendized proposal for a countywide MASK MANDATE on Tuesday, September 14.  Bay Area news put Solano in a sad light: all other county health officers issued a joint statement offering details on when they would be able to lift mask mandates (not likely soon).  TV news anchors had to point out that Solano would not be considering such a move since our health officer had not been able to “justify” a mask mandate in the first place.  The Solano Board of Supervisors has joined with Dr. Bela Matyas in officially showing poor leadership on the COVID-19 pandemic.


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.


Sources

COVID won’t quit in Solano – reporting 4 more dead, 14 more hospitalized, 117 more infected

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

By Roger Straw, Friday, December 3, 2021
[See also New York Times, Coronavirus: What we know about Omicron.]

Friday, December 3: Solano County reports
4 new deaths, 14 previously unreported hospitalizations and 117 new infections. Solano County AND Benicia remain in a SUBSTANTIAL rate of community transmission.

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

DEATHS: Solano reported 4 new deaths today.  The County reported 27 COVID deaths in September, 18 in October, and 11 in November, and 7 so far in early December (18 in the last 16 days, since November 17).  A total of 333 Solano residents have now died of COVID or COVID-related causes over the course of the pandemic.

CASES: The County reported 117 new COVID cases over the past 2 days.  CASES BY AGE GROUP: 23 of these 117 cases (20%) were youth and children under 18.  66 (56%) were age 18-49, 18  (15%) were age 50-64, and 10 (6%) were 65+.  BELOW: color-coded analysis of cases reported by age group, expressed as a percentage of total cases.  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 age 0-17 as percentage of total cases is at 15.4% as of today. (From the CDC covid-data-tracker.)

COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION RATE: Over the last 7 days, Solano has seen SUBSTANTIAL community transmission, with 368 new cases (jumping up from 251 on Wednesday).  CDC FORMULA: Based on Solano County’s population, 450 cases in 7 days would move Solano up into the CDC’s population-based definition of a HIGH transmission rate, and we will need to drop below 225 cases in 7 days to rate as having only MODERATE community transmission.

ACTIVE CASES: Solano’s 333 ACTIVE cases is up from Wednesday’s 329, and still far above our summer rates.

CASES BY CITY on Friday, December 3:

  • Benicia added 2 new cases today, a total of 1,599 cases since the outbreak began, and 18 cases over the last 7 days.  This keeps Benicia in the SUBSTANTIAL rate of community transmission  (see chart below)MODERATE is defined as less than 14 cases, based on Benicia population.  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 also currently experiencing SUBSTANTIAL transmission.

  • Dixon added 7 new cases today, total of 2,596 cases.
  • Fairfield added 30 new cases today, total of 12,595 cases.
  • Rio Vista reported 1 new case today, total of 634 cases.
  • Suisun City added 4 new cases today, total of 3,326 cases.
  • Vacaville added 40 new cases today, a total of 12,434 cases.
  • Vallejo added 33 new cases today, a total of 13,739 cases.
  • Unincorporated added 0 new cases today, a total of 145 cases.

POSITIVE TEST RATE:  Solano’s 7-day percent positivity rate was 5.3% today, down from Wednesday’s 6.4%.  COMPARE: Today’s California rate is 2.7%.  [Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Center]  Today’s U.S. rate is 8.36%. [Source: CDC COVID Data Tracker.] 

HOSPITALIZATIONS:

CURRENT hospitalizations were down today from 15 to 22 persons, still above the range we saw during last summer.

TOTAL hospitalizations: 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 Public Health updated its age and race hospitalizations charts again today, for the third time this week.  The age chart showed 24 previously unreported hospitalizations on Monday, 118 on Wednesday, and 14 more today!  Today’s report added 1 youth age 0-17,  7 young adults age 18-49, 1 Solano resident age 50-64, and 5 of our elders age 65+.  Solano hospitals reported a new total of 3,173 COVID patients since the beginning of the outbreak.  (Data on age is more reliable than that on race/ethnicity.)

ICU Bed Availability is 51% today, up unchanged since Wednesday, and firmly in the County’s GREEN zone.

Ventilator Availability today rose today from 72% to 77%.

MASK MANDATE – ALERT!
Benicia’s mask mandate will remain in effect, but could be altered at City Council meeting on December 7.
Vallejo also passed an indoors mask mandate on August 31.  In the Bay Area, Solano County REMAINS the only holdout against a mask mandate for public indoors spaces.

SOLANO COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS failed to consider an agendized proposal for a countywide MASK MANDATE on Tuesday, September 14.  Bay Area news put Solano in a sad light: all other county health officers issued a joint statement offering details on when they would be able to lift mask mandates (not likely soon).  TV news anchors had to point out that Solano would not be considering such a move since our health officer had not been able to “justify” a mask mandate in the first place.  The Solano Board of Supervisors has joined with Dr. Bela Matyas in officially showing poor leadership on the COVID-19 pandemic.


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.


Sources

Solano County playing catchup – discloses 3 new COVID deaths and 118 previously unreported hospitalizations

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

By Roger Straw, Wednesday, December 1, 2021
[See also New York Times, Coronavirus: What we know about Omicron.]

Wednesday, December 1: Solano County reports
3 new deaths, 118 previously unreported hospitalizations and 72 new infections. Solano County AND Benicia remain in a SUBSTANTIAL rate of community transmission.

Solano County COVID dashboard SUMMARY: Wednesday, December 1:
[Sources: see below.]

DEATHS: Solano reported 3 new deaths today.  The County reported 27 COVID deaths in September, 18 in October, and 14 so far in November (all in the last 2 weeks).  A total of 329 Solano residents have died of COVID or COVID-related causes over the course of the pandemic.

CASES: The County reported 72 new COVID cases over the past 2 days.  CASES BY AGE GROUP: 16 of these 72 cases (22%) were youth and children under 18.  37 were age 18-49, 14 were age 50-64, and only 5 were 65+.  Below: color-coded analysis of cases reported by age group, expressed as a percentage of total cases.  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 age 0-17 as percentage of total cases is at 15.4% as of today. (From the CDC covid-data-tracker.)

COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION RATE: Over the last 7 days, Solano has seen SUBSTANTIAL community transmission, with 251 new cases (down from 267 on Monday).  CDC FORMULA: Based on Solano County’s population, 450 cases in 7 days would move Solano up into the CDC’s population-based definition of a HIGH transmission rate, and we will need to drop below 225 cases in 7 days to rate as having only MODERATE community transmission.

ACTIVE CASES: Solano’s 329 ACTIVE cases is up from Monday’s 304, and still far above our summer rates.

CASES BY CITY on Wednesday, December 1:

  • Benicia added 4 new cases today, a total of 1,597 cases since the outbreak began, and 16 cases over the last 7 days.  This keeps Benicia in the SUBSTANTIAL rate of community transmission  (see chart below)MODERATE is defined as less than 14 cases, based on Benicia population.  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 also currently experiencing SUBSTANTIAL transmission.

  • Dixon added 4 new cases today, total of 2,589 cases.
  • Fairfield added 14 new cases today, total of 12,565 cases.
  • Rio Vista reported 0 new cases today, total of 633 cases.
  • Suisun City added 4 new cases today, total of 3,322 cases.
  • Vacaville added 27 new cases today, a total of 12,394 cases.
  • Vallejo added 19 new cases today, a total of 13,706 cases.
  • Unincorporated added 0 new cases today, a total of 145 cases.

POSITIVE TEST RATE:  Solano’s 7-day percent positivity rate was 6.4% today, down slightly from Monday’s 6.5%.  COMPARE: Today’s California rate is 2.0%.  [Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Center]  Today’s U.S. rate is 7.42%. [Source: CDC COVID Data Tracker.] 

HOSPITALIZATIONS:

CURRENT hospitalizations were down today from 18 to 15 persons, but still above the range we saw during last summer.

TOTAL hospitalizations: 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 Public Health updated its age and race hospitalizations charts again today, for the second time this week.  The age chart showed 24 previously unreported hospitalizations on Monday, and 118 more today!  Today’s report added 2 youths age 0-17,  44 young adults age 18-49, 36 Solano residents age 50-64, and 36 of our elders age 65+.  Solano hospitals reported a new total of 3,159 COVID patients since the beginning of the outbreak.  (Data on age is more reliable than that on race/ethnicity.)

ICU Bed Availability is 51% today, up substantially from 33% on Monday, and firmly in the County’s GREEN zone.

Ventilator Availability today fell today from 82% to 72%.

MASK MANDATE
Benicia’s mask mandate will remain in effect, at least through December 7.  IMPORTANT – See Steve Golub’s important new ALERT in advance of Council’s December 7 meeting.
Vallejo also passed an indoors mask mandate on August 31.  In the Bay Area, Solano County REMAINS the only holdout against a mask mandate for public indoors spaces.

SOLANO COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS failed to consider an agendized proposal for a countywide MASK MANDATE on Tuesday, September 14.  Bay Area news put Solano in a sad light: all other county health officers issued a joint statement offering details on when they would be able to lift mask mandates (not likely soon).  TV news anchors had to point out that Solano would not be considering such a move since our health officer had not been able to “justify” a mask mandate in the first place.  The Solano Board of Supervisors has joined with Dr. Bela Matyas in officially showing poor leadership on the COVID-19 pandemic.


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.


Sources

New info on homelessness in Benicia

[Editor – Did you know that in Benicia “ten homeless individuals live on the streets and…between fifty and seventy women and men live in cars or hotels, couch surf on a friend’s sofa, camp in someone’s garage, or shelter in a storage unit.”  Read on….  – R.S.]

VOICE OF THE VILLAGE – Oh, what I learned last week!

The Benicia Herald, by Judie Donaldson, November 26, 2021

            Carquinez Village recently formed an “Over Ninety” group that Janice Magner leads in conversational exchanges. I heard that one question Janice posed to everyone recently was, “What is one thing you learned this week?” That sounded like fun, so I added it to my weekly routine. Thanks to Carquinez Village member Pat Plant, I sure didn’t have any trouble answering the question last week!

What did Pat have to do with my learning? She organized a program for the Heritage Presbyterian Church that was so interesting, compelling, and heartfelt that I went overboard taking notes. What was it that stimulated me? I bet you’ll be surprised. The program focused on Benicia’s homeless population and our police department’s relationship with it.

Were you also surprised that I used those three adjectives––interesting, compelling, and heartfelt–– to describe the program? I was surprised. I felt proud to be a citizen of Benicia as I listened, learned, and enriched my understanding of our police force’s response to our homeless population. I believe that we are all in this world together, and the better we understand one another, the better the world will be. So, I want to share a little of what I learned.

For starters, although I don’t have time to do justice to the topic of homelessness, I want to at least mention that it is typically a multi-faceted problem that stems from factors such as a lack of affordable housing, evictions, and foreclosures; unemployment and job loss; poverty and the high cost of living; and violence, drugs, and domestic abuse. Some believe homelessness is a failure of capitalism.

Last week’s program featured Police Officer Maricella Ticknor. What an impressive young woman (and young mother, by the way).  Maricella joined the Benicia police force four and one-half years ago and, along with serving as the police department’s School Resource Officer and assuming patrol duty as needed, Maricella is the Police Liaison Officer with Benicia’s homeless population.

Maricella spent the evening fielding questions that provided insight into the overall philosophy of our police force­­ as a team of officers responsible for keeping us safe, but also committed to assisting Benicians––including members of our homeless population––in whatever way they can. As Maricella described her work with our homeless, I reflected on our good fortune to have someone so empathetic and committed in this role. She spent the evening offering a kind of “Homelessness in Benicia 101” perspective.
When she joined the force, Maricella recalls that Benicia had a homeless population of three. She estimates that today it has skyrocketed to between sixty and seventy. COVID bears significant responsibility for this escalation. Many of our homeless grew up in Benicia. Approximately ninety percent suffer from some form of a mental health problem.

Maricella depicts Benicia’s homeless population as consisting of two categories. First, approximately ten homeless individuals live on the streets and reject any effort that entails going into a shelter. I am guessing they might be described as chronic homeless. It may be hard for us to understand, but shelters feel unsafe to them. (Stealing is a frequent problem.) Shelters also represent a situation in which their autonomy and agency are threatened. Maricella explained that there are dozens of revolving hidden encampments in and around Benicia where they reside. Out of respect to those living in encampments, she declined to identify their locations.

Second, between fifty and seventy women and men live in cars or hotels, couch surf on a friend’s sofa, camp in someone’s garage, or shelter in a storage unit. She considers them to be our biggest problem. Many are homeless because of a job loss, drug problem, poverty, housing eviction, or mental health condition. Most are in search of housing and seek to return to a stable life. Unfortunately, the lack of affordable housing is a significant barrier. Maricella pointed out that some of those in this situation have a car and shop in Safeway and other stores as an unrecognized part of our general population.

In her liaison role, Maricella builds relationships and trust with members of the homeless community. Her goal is to connect them to resources and place them in a housing situation. We have resources available through the county and the state.

A member of the Solano County Outreach office joins Maricella once each month, bringing with her the paperwork needed for individuals to apply for various benefits.  Maricella and the Outreach representative meet with as many of our homeless as possible and encourage and help those interested in completing applications.

Maricella works persistently to get our homeless individuals into shelters. There is a shelter in Fairfield that offers extensive resources once a homeless person is staying there. Benicia covers the cost of one bed in the shelter, but Maricella said she has never been turned down when she has requested space for several people on the same night.

I think of Maricella as the caretaker of Benicia’s most vulnerable population and, by supporting them, she serves all of us. So, what does all of this mean for you and me? Of course, I can only speak for myself. Every day I give thanks for my privilege. I never want to forget that there are those, including our homeless, who have been less fortunate. Let’s all hope their situations change and one day they, too, will be able to count themselves among the privileged. Wouldn’t that be great? After all, when each of us does better, we all benefit.