Friday, October 29: Playing catch-up, Solano County reports 163 new infections, remains in SUBSTANTIAL rate of transmission. Benicia returns to SUBSTANTIAL transmission.
Solano County COVID dashboard SUMMARY:
[Sources: see below.]
DEATHS: Solano reported no new COVID-related deaths today. The County has reported 45 COVID deaths since Sept 1. A total of 315 Solano residents have died of COVID or COVID-related causes over the course of the pandemic.
CASES: The County reported 163 new COVID cases since Wednesday. Solano Health Officer Bela Matyas reports that this large increase was due in part to the State’s late reporting on Wednesday, “with at least 43 cases coming before the latest reporting period.” So… Wednesday’s new case numbers were not as good as they seemed, and today’s numbers are not as bad as they look. AGES: 35 of these 163 cases were youth and children under 18. 82 were age 18-49, 32 were age 50-64, and 14 were 65+.
COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION RATE: Over the last 7 days, Solano has seen a return to mid-range SUBSTANTIAL community transmission, with 334 new cases (up from 250 on Wednesday). CDC FORMULA: Based on Solano County’s population, 450 cases in 7 days would move Solano up into the CDC’s population-based definition of a HIGH transmission rate, and we will need to drop below 225 cases in 7 days to rate as having only MODERATE community transmission.
ACTIVE CASES: Solano’s 410 ACTIVE cases, up dramatically from Wednesday’s 308, and still far above our summer rates.
CASES BY CITY on Friday, October 29:
- Benicia added 12 new case today, a total of 1,535 cases since the outbreak began. TRANSMISSION RATE: Wednesday’s report of MODERATE only lasted for a day. Today we are back in the SUBSTANTIAL range of community transmission, with 16 new cases over the last 7 days. (SUBSTANTIAL is defined as 14 or more cases, based on Benicia population – SEE CHART BELOW). Benicia will need to maintain fewer than 14 new cases per 7 days for 30 consecutive days before relaxing the mask mandate. [Note above that Solano County is currently experiencing SUBSTANTIAL transmission.
- Dixon added 2 new cases today, total of 2,535 cases.
- Fairfield added 58 new cases today, total of 12,270 cases.
- Rio Vista reported at 3 new cases today, total of 610 cases.
- Suisun City added 9 new cases today, total of 3,239 cases.
- Vacaville added 50 new cases today, a total of 12,013 cases.
- Vallejo added 29 new cases today, a total of 13,380 cases.
- Unincorporated added 0 new cases today, a total of 140 cases.
POSITIVE TEST RATE: Solano’s 7-day percent positivity rate was 5.3% today, down from Wednesday’s 4.1%. COMPARE: Today’s California rate is 2.0%. [Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Center] Today’s U.S. rate is 4.95%. [Source: CDC COVID Data Tracker.]
HOSPITALIZATIONS:
CURRENT hospitalizations were up slightly today from 33 to 34 persons, and still far above the range we saw during last summer.
I
CU Bed Availability is at 29% today, down slightly from 30% on Wednesday, and in the YELLOW danger zone. We remain in the worrisome range we saw during last winter’s surge.
Ventilator Availability today dropped dramatically from 70% to only 51%.
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 did not update its hospitalizations charts today. Total COVID hospitalizations in Solano remain at 2,838 since the beginning of the outbreak.
ALERT! Benicia’s mask mandate may be weakened by City Council on Nov 16
On Tuesday, October 19, Benicia City Council reviewed our CDC-defined 7-day community transmission rate for September-October, which has yet to dip below the SUBSTANTIAL level. Because of this poor data and according to City Resolution 21-88, Council left in place Benicia’s citywide indoors mask mandate for now. The mandate 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. On Oct. 19, Councilmember Largaespada convinced other Councilmembers and staff to bring consideration of amending the mandate back to Council on November 16. Largaespada suggested amendments that could weaken the mandate with various exceptions, possibly including no indoor mask requirements in restaurants, bars and gyms. Largaespada would “Limit the mask mandate to the most essential businesses in town.” He added that groceries, pharmacies, banks and City Hall might be considered essential.
Vallejo also passed an indoors mask mandate on August 31. In the Bay Area, Solano County REMAINS the only holdout against a mask mandate for public indoors spaces.
SOLANO COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS failed to consider an agendized proposal for a countywide MASK MANDATE on Tuesday, September 14. Recent Bay Area news put Solano in a sad light: all other county health officers issued a joint statement offering details on when they would be able to lift mask mandates (not likely soon). TV news anchors had to point out that Solano would not be considering such a move since our health officer had not been able to “justify” a mask mandate in the first place. The Solano Board of Supervisors has joined with Dr. Bela Matyas in officially showing poor leadership on the COVID-19 pandemic.
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
- Solano County Coronavirus Dashboard (on the County website).
- See also my ARCHIVE of daily Solano COVID updates (an excel spreadsheet). I have posted full CORONAVIRUS REPORTS almost daily here on the Benicia Independent.
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