Tuesday, July 7: 86 new cases today,
2 new deaths. Since the outbreak started: 1,826 cases, 107 hospitalized, 27 deaths.

Compare previous report, Monday July 6:Summary

• Solano County reported 86 new cases today, total of 1,826 cases since the outbreak started.  Over the last 7 days, Solano reported 538 new cases, an average of 77 per day.
• 2 new deaths today, both over 65 years, total of 27.
• Hospitalizations – Solano is reporting 8 more currently hospitalized since yesterday, for a total of 35, but… no increase in the number hospitalized since the outbreak started, total of 107.  (Huh?  This is a puzzle…  Maybe a number of discharged patients were re-admitted?  Or the County is correcting an error?)
• Active cases – Solano reported 24 more ACTIVE cases today, total of 317.  This figure has been climbing: a week ago Monday there were 70 active cases, increasing to a high of 369 on Thursday, down to 293 yesterday and back up today to 317.  Only 35 of those active cases are hospitalized – a whole lot of infected people are out among us, hopefully quarantined.
• ICU beds Available fell 4% to 31%.  Ventilators Available dropped 2% to 86%.
• Testing – Solano County reported 455 residents were tested since yesterday, total of 34,329.  We still have a long way to go: only 7.7% of Solano County’s 447,643 residents (2019) have been tested.

Details and Demographics tab

The County’s Public Health Dashboard includes a second tab (panel), “Details and Demographics” (shown here).  Note that the Summary tab and this Details tab are both user interactive – hover over a chart (or tap) to get details. On this Details tab, most of the small charts have a small additional tab showing the rate per 100,000.   Go there and explore the two tabs.  (Expand a chart by clicking the small button in its upper right corner.)

By Age Group

• Youth 17 and under – 15 new cases today, total of 179 cases, and no new hospitalizations, total only 2.  Two weeks ago, there were only 70 cases among this age group – we’ve seen over 100 new cases in 15 days!  I continue to be alarmed for Solano’s youth.  Cases among Solano youth have increased in recent weeks to nearly 10% of the 1,826 total confirmed cases.
• Persons 18-49 years of age – 50 new cases today, total of 1,077 cases.  This age group represents 59% of the 1,826 total cases, by far the highest percentage of all age groups.  The County reported 1  fewer hospitalization among this age group today, (no explanation) total of 28 hospitalized at one time, and 2 deaths.
• Persons 50-64 years of age – 16 new cases today, total of 355 cases.  This age group represents 19% of the 1,826 total cases.
  1 new hospitalization today, total of 36 hospitalized at one time.  No new deaths, total of 3 deaths.
• Persons 65 years or older – 5 new cases today, total of 214 cases.  This age group represents 12% of the 1,826 total cases.  No new hospitalizations, total of 41 hospitalized at one time.
  2 new deaths, total of 22 deaths.  In this older age group, 19% were hospitalized at one time, a substantially higher percentage than in the lower age groups.  And this group counts for 22 of the 27 deaths, or 81%.

Incidence Rate: Cases, Hospitalizations, Deaths

On the Age Group chart (and also on the Race/Ethnicity Chart) there are “Rate” tabs.  Today’s report shows Solano County with:

• • Solano County has 406 positive cases per population of 100,000 (Compare this number with the City incidence rates, below.)
  • 26 Solano hospitalizations per population of 100,000
  • 5 Solano deaths per population of 100,000

Percent Positive Test Rates

Increasingly, national, state and county news reports are focusing on percent positive test rates.  Five Bay Area counties report daily on their seven-day average percent positive test rate, but Solano County does not.  This information is immediately important, as positive test rates in California and other southwestern states are increasing.  I wrote and asked Dr. Matyas on June 24 to supply information as to Solano County’s “percent positive test rate.”  He replied next day with thanks and wrote, “We are actively working to include these values on our County dashboard.  I hope we can begin to report on them sometime next week.”  That was nearly 2 weeks ago….

City Data

• Vallejo added 20 new cases today, total of 640.
• Fairfield added 33 new cases today, total of 620.  Fairfield has seen over 250 new cases over the last week, and is now approaching Vallejo’s total for positive cases.
• Vacaville added 19 new cases today, total of 282 cases.
• Suisun City added 6 new cases today, total of 119 cases.
• Benicia added 4 new cases today, total of 37 cases.  Benicia was extremely stable with no new cases for 14 days June 15-29, and added only 2 cases for the entire month of June.  Now… Benicia has seen 12 new cases in the past week.  The numbers are small in comparison, but something’s definitely going on in Benicia!
• Dixon added 3 new case today, total of 104 cases.
• Rio Vista added 1 new case, total of 17 cases.
• Unincorporated areas – Although the County still still shows Unincorporated at <10 (less than 10), a little math tells the story: Solano’s unincorporated areas remained at 7 cases, unaccounted for in the other City totals.
• A “Rate” column shows the rate of positive COVID-19 cases (per 100,000 population) for each city.  Benicia has the lowest rate, 134.2 cases per 100,000.  Compare Solano cities’ incidence rates in the chart, and note that the CDC reports today’s rate in California at 658 per 100,000 (up from 558 yesterday).

Race / Ethnicity

The County report on race / ethnicity data 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 reports that 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 23% of cases, 21% of hospitalizations and 19% of deaths.
• Black Americans are 13% of Solano’s population, and account for 13% of cases, but 29% of hospitalizations, and 35% of deaths.
• Latinx Americans are 26% of Solano’s population, but account for 37% of cases.  They account for 26% of hospitalizations, and 23% of deaths.
• Asian Americans are 14% of Solano’s population, and account for 10% of cases and 14% of hospitalizations, but 19% of deaths.

Much more…

The County’s new and improved 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 a report or two.  Check out the Dashboard at https://doitgis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=055f81e9fe154da5860257e3f2489d67.