Fairfield Daily Republic, by Todd R. Hansen, July 20, 2020
Dr. Bela Matyas, Solano County Public Health Officer
FAIRFIELD — Three more Solano County residents died due at least in part to Covid-19, the county Public Health Division reported Monday.
The deaths bring the total to 34.
Dr. Bela Matyas, the county public health officer, said one of the deaths was an individual older than 65 who had been in an intensive care unit for more than a month with respiratory problems, including Covid-19.
The others were between 19 and 45 and between 45 and 64, respectively, and each had “significant” underlying health issues, Matyas said.
Matyas said he could not think of any of the county’s Covid-19 fatalities who did not have some kind of health issue that contributed to their deaths.
Many of those individuals were exposed to the disease by younger members of their families or younger friends.
Matyas reported that 53% of the 2,759 cases – or 1,462 cases – are directly linked to family socialization, and another 19% are categorized as “community transmissions,” which the county could not link directly to one person or group.
Another 12% are linked to workplace contacts, Matyas said.
The news comes on a day on which other critical novel coronavirus statistics eased a bit.
While the number of hospitalizations increased to 53, active cases decreased by 146 to 247 and the seven-day positivity testing rate fell from 9.1% Friday to 7.9% Monday, the county reported.
Matyas remained concerned about the hospital data, but added he thought the Fourth of July surge was waning.
The overall number of cases spiked to 2,759, up 205 over Friday afternoon’s report.
“We are still averaging about 70 to 80 cases a day, so the surge is continuing,” Matyas said.
The numbers prove the increases are not simply due to more testing, he said.
“The surge is real,” Matyas said.
The county plans to begin a campaign to further inform residents about the direct link between Covid-19 cases and social gatherings.
Testing reached 44,267, which is 2,769 more than reported Friday.
Vallejo experienced a spike of 82 cases to bring its total to 921, while Fairfield added 63 cases to reach 944, the county reported.
Vacaville went from 420 cases to 453; Suisun City went from 193 to 205; and Dixon went from 135 to 145. Benicia added two cases to bring its count to 57, while Rio Vista added two cases to reach 25.
The unincorporated area of the county has nine cases, up one from Friday’s report. […continued…]
Monday, July 20: 205 new cases today, 3 new deaths. Since the outbreak started: 2,759 cases, 34 deaths.
Compare previous report, Friday July 17:Summary
Solano County reported 205 new cases over the weekend and today, total of 2,759 cases since the outbreak started. Over the last 7 days, Solano reported 684 new cases, an average of nearly 100 per day.
3 new deaths today, total of 34. One of these deaths was someone in the 18-49 year age group. Another was aged 50-64, and one was 65+.
Hospitalizations – [corrected after initial posting showed no change, at 51]3 additional currentlyhospitalized persons today, total of 53. And 3 more in the total number hospitalized since the outbreak started, 130. (The County no longer reports Total Hospitalized, but I have added the hospitalization numbers in the Age Group chart.)
Active cases– Solano reported146 fewer ACTIVE cases today, total of 247. The number of Active Cases climbed steadily Tuesday-Friday each week in July, dropping dramatically each Monday. The County must do a phone inventory of known cases before reporting on Mondays. Last week we hit a record high of 440. Note that only 51 of today’s 247 active cases are hospitalized; a lot of infected people are out among us, hopefully quarantined. One wonders… is the County equipped to contact trace so many infected persons? (See SF Chronicle report on contact tracing in Bay Area – “Solano County did not respond”.)
ICU beds Available remained steady at 39%. Ventilators Available also remained steady at 90%.
Testing – 2,769 residents were tested over the weekend and today, total of 44,267. But we still have a long way to go: only 10% of Solano County’s 447,643 residents (2019) have been tested.
Percent Positive Test Rate
Solano County reported today’s 7-day percent positive test rate at 7.9%. Last week the number increased each day, from 5.3% on Monday to a high of 9.1% on Friday. The recent dramatic daily increases will begin to show on the 7-day average line sometime soon. CONTEXT: California’s 7-day positivity rate today is reported at 7.2%, and its 14-day positivity rate today is 7.4%. Our rate in Solano County is well above the State’s rate. Increasingly, health officials and news reports are focusing on percent positive test rates. This information is immediately important, as test positivity is one of the best metrics for measuring the spread of the virus. Positive test rates in California and other southwestern states have been on the rise.
By Age Group
Youth 17 and under – 26 new cases today, total of 269 cases, and no new hospitalizations, total only 2 since the outbreak began. A week ago, there were 210 cases among this age group – we’ve seen 59 new cases in just 7 days!I continue to raise an alarm for Solano’s youth. Cases among Solano youth have increased in recent weeks to 9.7% of the 2,759 total confirmed cases.
Persons 18-49 years of age – 124 new cases today, total of 1,672 cases. This age group represents over 61% of the 2,759 total cases, by far the highest percentage of all age groups. The County reported no new hospitalizations today, total of 33 hospitalized since the outbreak began. 1 new death among this age group today, total of 3 deaths.
Persons 50-64 years of age – 45 new cases today, total of 539 cases. This age group represents over 19% of the 2,759 total cases. The County reported no new hospitalizations today, total of 41 hospitalized since the outbreak began. 1 new death among this age group, total of 4 deaths.
Persons 65 years or older – 10 new cases today, total of 278 cases. This age group represents 10.5% of the 2,759 total cases. 3 new hospitalizations, total of 54 hospitalized since the outbreak began. 1 new death, total of 27 deaths. In this older age group, over 19% of cases required hospitalization at one time, a substantially higher percentage than in the lower age groups. This group accounts for 27 of the 34 deaths, or 79%.
City Data
Beniciaadded 2 new cases today, total of 57 cases. Benicia was extremely stable with only 2 new cases for the entire month of June. Now Benicia has seen 16 new cases in 7 days.
Dixonadded 10 new cases today, total of 145 cases.
Fairfield added 63 new cases today, total of 944. Fairfield has more positive cases than anywhere in Solano County.
Rio Vistaadded 2 new casestoday, total of 25 cases.
Suisun City added 12 new cases today, total of 205 cases.
Vacaville added 33 new cases today, total of 453 cases.
Vallejoadded 82 new cases today, total of 921.
Unincorporated areas – Although the County still still shows Unincorporated at <10 (less than 10), a little math tells the story: Solano’s unincorporated areas added 1 new case today for a total of 9 cases (those unaccounted for in the other City totals).
Race / Ethnicity
The County report on race / ethnicity includes case numbers, hospitalizations, deaths and Solano population statistics. There are also tabs showing a calculated rate per 100,000 by race/ethnicity for each of these boxes. This information is discouragingly similar to national reportsthat indicate worse outcomes among black and brown Americans. As of today:
White Americans are 39% of the population in Solano County, but only account for 22% of cases, 25% of hospitalizations and 20% of deaths.
Black Americans are 14% of Solano’s population, and account for 13% of cases, but 26% of hospitalizations, and 33% of deaths.
Latinx Americans are 26% of Solano’s population, but account for 32% of cases, 27% of hospitalizations, and 27% of deaths.
Asian Americans are 14% of Solano’s population, and account for 9% of cases and 14% of hospitalizations, but 17% of deaths.
Bay Area’s contact tracers struggle amid coronavirus surge
San Francisco Chronicle, by Carolyn Said, July 20, 2020
In a photo taken with a telephoto lens, beachgoers gather at Robert W. Crown Memorial Beach on Tuesday, May 26, 2020, in Alameda, Calif. Most people maintained at least fifteen feet between groups. Photo: Noah Berger / Special to The Chronicle
Contact tracing — finding and notifying everyone who has had close contact with a person infected with the coronavirus — is key to stemming the pandemic. Once people learn they’ve spent time near someone who had the virus, they can get tested themselves and quarantine so they don’t infect others.
Bay Area county health departments ramped up in April and May to handle the laborious process, most of it armchair detective work by phone and email, not the high-tech surveillance some in Silicon Valley originally envisioned. But the recent surge in cases has made the task much harder, because there are more people to contact and because it takes longer to be tested and then get the results.
Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties all fall short of their goal of doing case investigations for 90% of the people who test positive, and then reaching out to 90% of the folks those people had close contact with while they were infectious.
Napa, Sonoma and Solano counties did not respond to requests for information.
When it comes to reaching contacts of the people who tested positive, the counties range from 70% to 80%, except for Contra Costa, which reaches only 26% of those who had contact with infected people, and Marin, which reached only 46% (its numbers are older). Still, those numbers are far better than those in New York and some other states.
“Obviously we want as many as possible because that’s where you get the most bang for your buck,” said Dr. George Rutherford, an infectious diseases expert at UCSF who spearheaded San Francisco’s contact-tracing program. But modeling shows that even reaching 43% of infected people’s contacts provides some disease suppression. “I think the spread would be worse without” contact tracing, even though it hasn’t reached its potential, he said.
Contra Costa County could not say why it is so far below the Bay Area norm, especially since it is closer than Alameda and San Mateo counties to meeting its contact tracing staff goal.
“We’ve been grappling with it,” said Erika Jenssen, deputy director of Contra Costa Health Services. “To do effective contact tracing, we need timely lab results for tests, adequate staffing and to partner with the community.”
She pointed to delayed test results as a major obstacle. While the median turnaround time in the county is four days, many results come in as late as 10 days after testing — by which time a person may not longer be infectious.
The case investigations — interviews with newly diagnosed people — shed light on how the virus has spread since shelter-in-place orders were eased.
“We are seeing more people who were at some kind of gathering; that’s a common source of exposure,” Jenssen said. Contra Costa County investigators found that 18% of those who tested positive had attended large gatherings in the previous 15 days, while 17% had been to in-person workplaces. About 20% had visited restaurants, supermarkets and other stores.
Signs encourage wearing a mask at Lake Merritt in Oakland in June. Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle
Even counties that have maintained fairly high contact tracing numbers say they struggle with the surge.
Rep. John Lewis remembered for legacy of ‘good trouble’
Associated Press, July 18, 2020
In this Feb. 23, 1965, file photo, Wilson Baker, left foreground, public safety director, warns of the dangers of night demonstrations at the start of a march in Selma, Ala. Second from right foreground, is John Lewis of the Student Non-Violent Committee. Lewis, who carried the struggle against racial discrimination from Southern battlegrounds of the 1960s to the halls of Congress, died Friday, July 17, 2020. (AP Photo/File)
ATLANTA (AP) — Congressman John Lewis, a civil rights icon and the last of the Big Six civil rights activists led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., died Friday at age 80. He is being remembered by congressional colleagues, civil rights leaders and former presidents as a “titan” of the struggle against racial discrimination.
FORMER PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA
“Considering his enormous impact on the history of this country, what always struck those who met John was his gentleness and humility. Born into modest means in the heart of the Jim Crow South, he understood that he was just one of a long line of heroes in the struggle for racial justice. Early on, he embraced the principles of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience as the means to bring about real change in this country, understanding that such tactics had the power not only to change laws, but to change hearts and minds as well.”
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HOUSE SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI
“John Lewis was a titan of the civil rights movement whose goodness, faith and bravery transformed our nation – from the determination with which he met discrimination at lunch counters and on Freedom Rides, to the courage he showed as a young man facing down violence and death on Edmund Pettus Bridge, to the moral leadership he brought to the Congress for more than 30 years. ”
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SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MITCH McCONNELL
“I will never forget joining hands with John as members of Congress sang We Shall Overcome at a 2008 ceremony honoring his friend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It could not have been more humbling to consider what he had suffered and sacrificed so those words could be sung in that place.”
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FORMER PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON AND FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON
“From a small farm in Alabama, to life-risking service in the civil rights movement, to three decades in Congress, he was always ‘walking with the wind,’ steered by a moral compass that told him when to make good trouble and when to heal troubled waters. Always true to his word, his faith, and his principles, John Lewis became the conscience of the nation.”
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FORMER PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER
“He made an indelible mark on history through his quest to make our nation more just. John never shied away from what he called ‘good trouble’ to lead our nation on the path toward human and civil rights. Everything he did, he did in a spirit of love. All Americans, regardless of race or religion, owe John Lewis a debt of gratitude.”
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THE CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS
“The world has lost a legend; the civil rights movement has lost an icon, the City of Atlanta has lost one of its most fearless leaders, and the Congressional Black Caucus has lost our longest serving member. The Congressional Black Caucus is known as the Conscience of the Congress. John Lewis was known as the conscience of our caucus.”
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ATLANTA MAYOR KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS
“The City of Atlanta’s Congressman Lewis is an American hero and one of the pillars of the Civil Rights Movement. Congressman Lewis was also revered as the dean of the Georgia Congressional delegation whose passionate call to “make good trouble” became a generational rallying cry for nonviolent activism in the pursuit of social justice and human rights.”
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THE NAACP
“He fought harder and longer than anyone in our nation’s continuing battle for civil rights and equal justice.”
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THE REV. JESSE JACKSON
“John Lewis is what patriotism and courage look like. He sacrificed and personifies a New Testament prophet.”
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THE REV. AL SHARPTON
“My friend, role model, and activist extraordinaire has passed. Congressman John Lewis taught us how to be an activist. He changed the world without hate, rancor or arrogance. A rare and great man.”
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BERNICE KING, DAUGHTER OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
“Farewell, sir. You did, indeed, fight the good fight and get into a lot of good trouble. You served God and humanity well. Thank you. Take your rest.”
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FORMER SENATE MAJORITY LEADER HARRY REID
“Few have had as powerful and inspiring an impact on our country as Congressman Lewis and America is a better, more equal place because of his sacrifice and leadership. Our nation owes so much to this incredible man. We served together in Congress for decades, and I was honored to call him my friend.”
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REP. MAXINE WATERS
“It is not enough to say he was a revered civil rights icon. He was a man of impeccable integrity who dedicated his life to fighting against racism, discrimination & injustice. John was a true leader who inspired us all to have the courage to fight.”
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THE AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF GEORGIA
“Time and time again he demonstrated moral and physical courage in nonviolent defiance of the white supremacist regime in the South. Throughout his long life, his commitment to full equality for all people never wavered. He will always be remembered with gratitude and admiration.”
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U.S. SEN. DAVID PERDUE OF GEORGIA
“No one embodied the word ‘courage’ better than John Lewis. As a civil rights icon, John inspired millions of Americans to fight injustice and reject the status quo. Without a doubt, his wisdom and resolve made the world a better place.”
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U.S. SEN. KELLY LOEFFLER OF GEORGIA
“As a leader in the civil rights movement, he always pushed America to live up to its promise of freedom and equality. Our nation is better because of his leadership and courage. We know his legacy will never be forgotten.”
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STACEY ABRAMS, GEORGIA POLITICIAN
“Defender of justice. Champion of right. Our conscience, he was a griot of this modern age, one who saw its hatred but fought ever towards the light. And never once did he begrudge sharing its beauty.”
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