#wearamask, Benicia CA, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Delta variant, Face coverings, Hospitalizations, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Department, Vaccine

Case numbers back up in Solano County, Benicia sees a surprising 17 new cases

By Roger Straw, Friday, October 1, 2021

Friday, October 1: Solano County reports 270 new infections, including a recent high of 17 new cases in Benicia

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

DEATHS: no new COVID-related deaths reported today.  Total Solano deaths over the course of the pandemic remains at 297.  The County reported 9 new deaths last week and 7 this week, a total of 27 in September:

CASES: The County reported  200 new COVID cases in the last 2 days, 100 per day.  Last week’s average was 152 per day, and on Wednesday the County reported 135 per day, so Monday’s standout report of only 16 per day over the weekend was surely incomplete or erroneous.

COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION RATE: Over the last 7 days, Solano has seen 518 new cases, up from 460 on Wednesday and firmly back into the CDC’s population-based definition of a HIGH transmission rate after only 1 Solano dashboard report placing the County below that level.

(CDC FORMULA: Based on Solano County population of 449,432, the CDC would rate us in “SUBSTANTIAL” transmission with 225 cases over the last 7 days.  Double that, or 450 cases in the last 7 days would rank us in “HIGH” transmission.  Reference: CDC’s “Level of SARS-CoV-2 Community Transmission”.]

ACTIVE CASES: Solano’s 545 ACTIVE cases is up slightly over Wednesday’s 537, and far above our summer rates.

POSITIVE TEST RATE:  Our 7-day average percent positivity rate was 7.8% today, up from Wednesday’s 7.2%.  COMPARE: today’s California rate is 2.0% and today’s U.S. rate is 6.6%.  [Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Center]

HOSPITALIZATIONS:

CURRENT hospitalizations were down today from 54 to 46 persons, but still in the range we saw during the winter surge.

ICU Bed Availability is down today, from 22% to only 18%, in the yellow danger zone.  Again, we are in the worrisome range we saw during the winter surge.

Ventilator Availability went up slightly today from 53% to 57%, still in the range of last February’s winter surge.

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.  The County adjusted its Hospitalizations charts today, adding 29 previously unreported hospitalizations.  See below.  The differing race/ethnicity numbers indicate a number of persons whose race/ethnicity was not given or recorded.  All percentages remain unchanged except for a 1% drop in the percentage of persons age 50-64.

FACE MASKS… Required for all in Benicia and Vallejo

Benicia City Council passed a citywide indoors mask mandate that went into effect on August 24 and includes everyone 4 years old and up when indoors in public places, even those of us who are vaccinated.  Benicia was joined by Vallejo on August 31.  In the Bay Area, Solano County REMAINS the only holdout against a mask mandate for public indoors spaces.

I know this is getting to be old news, but it seems so important to me… SOLANO COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS failed to consider an agendized proposal for a countywide MASK MANDATE on Tuesday, September 14.  The Board’s agenda called for discussion of an indoors mask mandate for all and a vaccination mandate for county workers.  The Board voted 4-1 to require county-run facilities in Vallejo and Benicia to abide by local mandates.  But the Board voted down the vaccination mandate 3-2, and failed to even consider the agendized question of a county-wide mask mandate.  The Solano Board of Supervisors joined with Dr. Bela Matyas in officially showing poor leadership on the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cases by City on Friday, October 1:
  • Benicia added 17(!) new cases today, a total of 1,439 cases since the outbreak began.  Benicia has seen 27 new cases over the last 7 days, very nearly back in the CDC’s definition of HIGH community transmission (defined as 28 or more cases, based on Benicia population).  17 new cases today represents a one-day return to August numbers.  Will this increase in cases continue?  If so, we may have an October COVID outbreak in Benicia.  [Note that Solano County is at a level of HIGH transmission, and Solano’s 6 other cities are likely also individually experiencing high or substantial transmission.]
  • Dixon added 8 new cases today, total of 2,473 cases.
  • Fairfield added 54 new cases today, total of 11,938 cases.
  • Rio Vista added 1 new case today, total of 569 cases.
  • Suisun City added 14 new cases today, total of 3,156 cases.
  • Vacaville added 42 new cases today, a total of 11,689 cases.
  • Vallejo added 62 new cases today, a total of 13,050 cases.
  • Unincorporated added 2 new cases today, a total of 139 cases (population figures not available).

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