Benicia CA, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Delta variant, Hospitalizations, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Department, Vaccine

Summer surge continues in Benicia and Solano County: 2 more deaths and 238 new infections countywide

By Roger Straw, Monday, August 23, 2021

Monday, August 23: Summer surge in Solano, report of 238 new infections today, 833 ACTIVE cases.  Fewer ICU beds available.

Solano County COVID dashboard SUMMARY:
[Sources: see below.  See also my ARCHIVE spreadsheet of daily Solano COVID updates.]

DEATHS: The County reported 2 new deaths today, 1 person age 50-64 and 1 age 65+.  One was Hispanic/Latinx and one was White.  Total deaths now number 264.

Percentage of cases by age groups. Click to enlarge.

CASES: The County reported  238 new COVID cases over the weekend, 79 per day, down dramatically from last week’s 157 per day. Case numbers show a startling increase in the PERCENTAGE OF YOUNG PERSONS age 0-17, increasing 0.3% last week to a new high of 13.2% of total cases.  The percentage of youth cases has increased very slowly over the course of the pandemic, starting below 6%, and very gradually reaching 12% in mid-April of 2021.  CASES-PER DAY TREND (All Age Groups): We are experiencing a dramatic “summer surge” now.  Cases-per-day were trending downward in the Spring, but rose rapidly in July and are skyrocketing here in August:ACTIVE CASES: Solano’s 833 ACTIVE cases was down from Friday’s astonishing high or 1,087, but still up alarmingly from 212 on July 2, and in the range we experienced during the winter surge.

POSITIVE TEST RATE:  Down some today, thank goodness, but much higher than US & California!  Our 7-day average percent positivity rate was 15.7% today, down from 20.1% Friday, but still twice the purple tier margin, and over 3 times today’s California rate of 4.5% and nearly 1.5 times today’s U.S. rate of 11.5%. [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 up slightly today from 138 to 143 persons, still higher than any time since the winter surge.

ICU Bed Availability was down shockingly today from 24% to only 18%, in the yellow danger zone and lower than anytime since January 29.

Ventilator Availability was also down today from 54% to 51%, lower than anytime since Feb. 4.

TOTAL Hospitalized – 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 did not update its Hospitalizations by Age Group chart today.  The Age Group chart shows a total of 2,056 persons hospitalized since the beginning of the outbreak, in the following age groups:

Age Group Hospitalizations % of Total
0-17 36 2%
18-49 585 28%
50-64 549 27%
65+ 886 43%
TOTAL 2,056 100%

Hospitalizations are also recorded on the County’s demographic chart labeled “Hospitalizations by Race / Ethnicity.”  The chart was not updated today.  Here are the current numbers and percentages.  Interestingly, the total doesn’t square with the total by age groups.

Race / Ethnicity Hospitalizations % of Total
Asians 323 17%
Black / African American 336 17%
Hispanic / Latinx 555 29%
White 631 33%
Multirace / Others 84 4%
TOTAL 1,919 100%
Face Coverings… Good News in Benicia

Benicia City Council voted last week to move forward tomorrow, Tues. Aug. 24, in consideration of a Citywide indoors mask mandate for all public places.  Agenda here.  If the City moves forward with the mandate tomorrow, it will be 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. 

Wearing masks again, social distancing & vaccination…

“Breakthrough” numbers are small in comparison to the huge surge in cases and hospitalizations among the unvaccinated, but it’s still a significant new factor.  We were just beginning to associate more freely with fully vaccinated friends and family, and now we understand that a small percentage of the vaccinated among us may be asymptomatic and unknowingly transmitting the virus, and inevitably helping spread the disease to someone who knows someone, who knows someone else, who knows yet another someone who is not vaccinated, or who is too young or too health-compromised to be vaccinated – and who may end up seriously ill or even dead!  Please mask indoors in public now, and maybe even indoors with vaccinated family and friends!  And PLEASE talk to anyone you know who isn’t vaccinated.  This thing ain’t over yet!

Cases by City on Monday, August 23:
  • Benicia added 11 new cases today, a total of 1,216 cases since the outbreak began, 4.4% of its population of 27,570.
  • Dixon added 9 new cases today, total of 2,169 cases, 11.0% of its population of 19,794.
  • Fairfield added 69 new cases today, total of 10,596 cases, 9.0% of its population of 117,149.
  • Rio Vista added 3 new cases today, total of 475 cases, 5.0% of its population of 9,416.
  • Suisun City added 15 new cases today, total of 2,753 cases, 9.3% of its population of 29,447.
  • Vacaville added 50 new cases today, a total of 10,175 cases, 10.3% its of population of 98,807.
  • Vallejo added 80 new cases today, a total of 11,496 cases, 9.6% of its population of 119,544.
  • Unincorporated added 1 new case today, a total of 122 cases (population figures not available).

COMPARE: From the most recent report on Solano County’s COVID Dashboard, Friday, August 20:

The data on this page is from today’s and the previous Solano County COVID-19 Dashboard.  The Dashboard is full of much more information and updated weekdays 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