COVID19.CA.GOV is the only WEEKEND source of information on the coronavirus in Solano County. The hospitalization details below are current as of now, and are automatically updated here on the Benicia Independent with each new day’s report from CA.GOV.
Hover your mouse over items to see detailed data, including numbers on a given date.
Two days ago, my cousin wrote intimately about her personal experience with COVID-19. This is short and incredibly well said – take a minute and listen…
I had a “mild” case of Covid-19. While it took me three weeks to feel better, and I am no longer contagious; I am experiencing what I will call, a Covid day. My joints ache. I have a head ache–that beautiful sun is something I’m happy to see, but I really want to draw my shades. And while walking my dogs (despite my aches and pains), I developed a wheeze. I don’t mean this as a complaint; I feel very blessed not to have had a serious case. I want it as a warning. You don’t know how your body will respond to this disease. You may die. You may not have any symptoms at all. You may have a “mild’ case that leaves you with the annoyance of hands that cannot grasp your broom, lungs that wheeze occasionally, or a head ache that makes it impossible to enjoy a beautiful winter day.
So PLEASE, take care, everyone! Don’t listen if someone tells you COVID isn’t all that serious. It’s spreading like wildfire and can cause real and sometimes lasting damage or worse. My cousins are only 54 and 60 years old, but our uncle is 89. Prayers, good thoughts, virtual hugs and blessings to every family going through this tough time!
By Roger Straw, December 11, 2020
In this time of exploding numbers, NOW through mid-January at the least – please take extra precautions. Stay home as much as you can, and make plans now for a different kind of Christmas, Hanukah and New Year celebration. Wear a mask if you must go out, order groceries for pick-up or delivery, don’t stay long anywhere but home, and keep your distance more carefully than ever before.
[Source: Solano County Coronavirus Dashboard. For a complete archive of County updates, see my Excel ARCHIVE. ALSO see important daily updates from the state of California at COVID19.CA.GOV, embedded here on the BenIndy at Cases and Deaths AND Hospitalizations AND ICU Beds by REGION. Sorry, I can’t for the life of me explain the differences between Solano reporting and the State’s reporting….]
Compare previous report, Thursday, Dec. 10:
SummaryICU Beds – Solano County reported only 21% of our ICU beds available today, deep in the yellow danger zone, and equaling the lowest we’ve seen in this county. The San Francisco Chronicle reported today that ICU hospital bed capacity in two Solano cities are among the most impacted in the SF Bay Area: Vacaville with 91% of ICU beds occupied and Vallejo with 81% of ICU beds occupied. (For COVID19-CA.GOV info see BenIndy page, COVID-19 Hospitalizations Daily Update for Solano County, and for REGIONAL data see COVID-19 ICU Bed Availability by REGION.)
%Solano County reported another high 7-day average positive test rate today of 14.5%, down a bit from yesterday’s 15.2% but still far and away over the State’s purple tier threshold of 8%. Average percent positive test rates are among the best metrics for measuring community spread of the virus. The much lower and more stable California 7-day average test rate has also been on the rise lately, up today from 10.0 to 10.5%. (Note that Solano County displays past weeks and months in a 7-day test positivity line graph which also shows daily results. However, the chart does not display an accurate number of cases for the most recent days, as there is a lag time in receiving test results. The 7-day curve therefore also lags behind due to unknown recent test results.)
The County report on race / ethnicity includes case numbers, hospitalizations, deaths and Solano population statistics. This information is discouragingly similar to national reports that indicate significantly worse outcomes among black and brown Americans. Note that all of this data surely undercounts Latinx Americans, as there is a large group of “Multirace / Others” which likely is composed mostly of Latinx members of our communities.
The County’s Coronavirus Dashboard is full of much more information, too extensive to cover here on a daily basis. The Benicia Independent will continue to summarize daily and highlight significant portions. For more, check out the Dashboard at https://doitgis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=055f81e9fe154da5860257e3f2489d67.
Hospitals in the Bay Area, California and across the nation are running short of intensive care unit beds as the latest coronavirus surge sets new records for cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
On Thursday, California reported a record 2,710 ICU hospitalizations, and four of five state regions, including part of the Bay Area, were under the regional stay-at-home order issued last week by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The order is triggered when available ICU hospital capacity dips below 15%.
The five regions, based on California’s mutual aid system and emergency response networks, are the Bay Area, Southern California, the San Joaquin Valley, Greater Sacramento and Northern California.
The Southern California region, with 7.7% ICU availability as of Thursday, and the San Joaquin Valley, with just 1.9% availability, fell under the stay-at-home order last weekend. Restrictions went into effect overnight Thursday for the Greater Sacramento area, with 13.3% availability.
The Bay Area region was at 17.8% available ICU capacity Thursday, though five of its 11 counties — San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara and Marin — have voluntarily tightened restrictions in line with the state order. Sonoma County announced Thursday it will join them this weekend. Northern California had the highest ICU availability in the state, at 30.3%.
Critical shortages are occurring across the nation. On Monday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services began releasing COVID-19 hospital capacity data at the facility level, aggregating daily hospital reports and sharing them on a weekly basis. The New York Times has created an interactive map detailing the ICU capacity throughout the U.S. 
[BenIndy editor: The NYTimes map shows Fairfield (22 of 30 ICU beds occupied, 75% on Dec. 9) as well as Vallejo (20 of 24, 81%) and Vacaville (10 of 11, 91%). It’s a little hard to navigate the map, but worth it for the numbers. – R.S.]
Here are the ICU occupancy rates for both the most-impacted and the largest high-population locations in the Bay Area, compared with California and the U.S., according to the data released Monday. The figures are based on seven-day average patient count by hospital service area.
Daly City: 100% of ICU beds occupied
Santa Rosa: 95% of ICU beds occupied
Vacaville: 91% of ICU beds occupied
South San Francisco: 90% of ICU beds occupied
San Leandro: 90% of ICU beds occupied
Petaluma: 88% of ICU beds occupied
Martinez: 83% of ICU beds occupied
Fremont: 83% of ICU beds occupied
Vallejo: 81% of ICU beds occupied
Castro Valley: 80% of ICU beds occupied
Sonoma County
In Santa Rosa, the largest city in Sonoma County, ICUs are 95% full. Sonoma County did not initially join the five Bay Area counties in adopting the stay-at-home measure, but officials announced Thursday that the county would adopt it starting Saturday at 12:01 a.m.
“Although Sonoma County has fared better until now than other parts of the state in terms of demand on our hospitals, we have been seeing an alarming increase in cases and hospitalizations in recent days, and this is putting increased strain on our medical resources,” county health officer Dr. Sundari Mase said in a news release. “We feel we have no choice but to join the other Bay Area counties in preemptively adopting the governor’s Stay-Home order.”
Mase noted that hospitalizations in Sonoma are near the county’s highest ever, and that coronavirus case rates are at their highest since the pandemic began. “We also are seeing a wider geographic spread of infection,” Mase said. She tied the increases to the surge in cases across the nation as well as large gatherings in the county, including over Halloween and Thanksgiving.
At a community briefing on Wednesday, the most recent ICU available capacity was reported at 11.6% in Sonoma County. ICU beds occupied in Sonoma are at 57%, Healdsburg is at 20% and Petaluma stands at 88%. The county removed hospital capacity data from its website, and the Press Democrat reported that officials are working with the state to fix discrepancies between the county and state websites.
MOST IMPACTED CALIFORNIA
Daly City: 100% of ICU beds occupied
Huntington Beach (Orange County): 100% of ICU beds occupied
Ventura: 99% of ICU beds occupied
Upland (San Bernardino County): 97% of ICU beds occupied
Chula Vista (San Diego County): 97% of ICU beds occupied
Oxnard (Ventura County): 96% of ICU beds occupied
Victorville (San Bernardino County): 95% of ICU beds occupied
Thousand Oaks (Ventura County): 95% of ICU beds occupied
Santa Rosa: 95% of ICU beds occupied
Fresno: 95% of ICU beds occupied
Lynwood (Los Angeles County): 95% of ICU beds occupied
Northridge (Los Angeles County): 95% of ICU beds occupied
Arcadia (Los Angeles County): 94% of ICU beds occupied
Redlands (San Bernardino County): 94% of ICU beds occupied
Fontana (San Bernardino County): 93% of ICU beds occupied
Redding: 91% of ICU beds occupied
Huntington Beach
In California, all of Huntington Beach’s 11 ICU beds are occupied. The Orange County city of fewer than 200,000 has made headlines as a gathering place for locals to demonstrate their resistance to mask orders and other pandemic restriction-enforcement measures.
Ventura County
In Ventura County, the cities of Ventura, Oxnard, Thousand Oaks and Camarillo are all at more than 95% ICU capacity. The county is grouped in the Southern California region, which is under the regional stay-at-home order. County supervisors have unanimously voted to propose a new region that would include Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, which have much higher available ICU capacity and therefore likely could remove restrictions on businesses sooner.
MOST IMPACTED U.S.
Albuquerque, N.M.: 116% of ICU beds occupied
Baton Rouge, La.: 109% of ICU beds occupied
Ogden, Utah: 107% of ICU beds occupied
Upland, Pa.: 106% of ICU beds occupied
Easton, Pa.: 104% of ICU beds occupied
Abington, Pa.: 102% of ICU beds occupied)
Pompano Beach, Fla.: 100% of ICU beds occupied
Port St. Lucie, Fla.: 100% of ICU beds occupied
Dothan, Ala.: 100% of ICU beds occupied
Douglasville, Ga.: 100% of ICU beds occupied
Wailuku, Hawaii: 100% of ICU beds occupied
Chicago Heights, Ill.: 100% of ICU beds occupied
Leonardtown, Md.: 100% of ICU beds occupied
St. Joseph, Mo.: 100% of ICU beds occupied
St. Cloud, Minn.: 100% of ICU beds occupied
Albuquerque
The hospital service area that includes Albuquerque shows the highest ICU occupancy in the nation at 116%. In mid-November, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham tightened restrictions statewide in hopes of reducing the virus spread, but that wasn’t enough. On Nov. 20, a backup hospital in Albuquerque was opened to relieve the strain. Now hospitals are reaching surge capacity at nearly 1,000 hospitalizations daily. Officials are preparing to ration care to coronavirus patients, with the only criterion being whether a person is likely to survive.
TOP LARGEST LOCATIONS IN THE BAY AREA GROUP
San Francisco: 72% of ICU beds occupied
Oakland: 62% of ICU beds occupied
Santa Rosa: 95% of ICU beds occupied
San Jose: 68% of ICU beds occupied
Greenbrae: 59% of ICU beds occupied
Napa: 45% of ICU beds occupied
Vallejo: 81% of ICU beds occupied
Daly City: 100% of ICU beds occupied
Concord: 78% of ICU beds occupied
Salinas: 61% of ICU beds occupied
Santa Cruz: 76% of ICU beds occupied
TOP LARGEST CALIFORNIA CITIES
Los Angeles: 80% of ICU beds occupied
San Diego: 65% of ICU beds occupied
San Jose: 68% of ICU beds occupied
San Francisco: 72% of ICU beds occupied
Fresno: 95% of ICU beds occupied
Sacramento: 83% of ICU beds occupied
Long Beach: 51% of ICU beds occupied
Oakland: 62% of ICU beds occupied
Bakersfield: 75% of ICU beds occupied
Anaheim: 87% of ICU beds occupied
Santa Ana: 37% of ICU beds occupied
Riverside: 88% of ICU beds occupied
Stockton: 90% of ICU beds occupied
Irvine: No ICU data reported from local hospitals
Chula Vista: 97% of ICU beds occupied
Chula VIsta
Chula Vista, in San Diego County, has the highest percentage of ICU beds occupied at 97%. San Diego County’s hospitals have seen a crush of coronavirus admissions since late November, and some facilities have reported that they are already utilizing surge beds, concerned about an increase of cases due to the Thanksgiving holiday.
TOP LARGEST U.S. CITIES
New York City: 78% of ICU beds occupied
Los Angeles: 80% of ICU beds occupied
Chicago: 65% of ICU beds occupied
Houston: 91% of ICU beds occupied
Phoenix: 64% of ICU beds occupied
Philadelphia: 84% of ICU beds occupied
San Antonio: 91% of ICU beds occupied
San Diego: 65% of ICU beds occupied
Dallas: 93% of ICU beds occupied
San Jose: 68% of ICU beds occupied
Austin, Texas: 85% of ICU beds occupied
Jacksonville, Fla.: 79% of ICU beds occupied
Fort Worth, Texas: 92% of ICU beds occupied
Columbus, Ohio: 83% of ICU beds occupied
Charlotte, N.C.: 81% of ICU beds occupied
Texas
Dallas has the lowest ICU capacity on this list, with just 7% of ICU beds available. Dallas County recently reported the second-highest daily death toll in the pandemic, and the county had to lower business capacity from 75% to 50% on Dec. 3 after going over the 15% ICU capacity threshold.
Fort Worth, in Texas’ Tarrant County, follows closely behind with 92% of ICU beds occupied. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s office is near storage capacity for bodies, so two refrigerated trucks have been brought in and are expected to be used soon.
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