Friday, November 5: Solano County reports 74 new infections since Wednesday, remains in SUBSTANTIAL rate of transmission. Solano Public Health has not updated the public on COVID hospitalization details (age and race) since October 15.
Solano County COVID dashboard SUMMARY:
[Sources: see below.]
DEATHS: Solano reported no new COVID-related deaths today. The County reported 27 COVID deaths in September, 18 in October, and none since October 18. A total of 315 Solano residents have died of COVID or COVID-related causes over the course of the pandemic.
CASES: The County reported 74 new COVID cases since Wednesday. AGES: 13 of these 85 cases were youth and children under 18. 32 were age 18-49, 12 were age 50-64, and 17 were 65+. Today’s report of 17 seniors (8.5 per day) represents an upward tic: over the previous 4 weeks new cases among seniors averaged only 4.75 per day.
COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION RATE: Over the last 7 days, Solano has seen SUBSTANTIAL community transmission, with 261 new cases (down from 350 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 394 ACTIVE cases is down slightly from Wednesday’s 396, and still far above our summer rates.
CASES BY CITY on Friday, November 5:
- Benicia added 4 new cases today, a total of 1,547 cases since the outbreak began. Benicia dropped into the MODERATE range of community transmission with ONLY 12 new cases over the last 7 days. (MODERATE is defined as less than 14 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 6 new cases today, total of 2,556 cases.
- Fairfield added 15 new cases today, total of 12,326 cases.
- Rio Vista reported at 1 new case today, total of 614 cases.
- Suisun City added 6 new cases today, total of 3,254 cases.
- Vacaville added 23 new cases today, a total of 12,104 cases.
- Vallejo added 19 new cases today, a total of 13,442 cases.
- Unincorporated added 0 new cases today, a total of 140 cases.
POSITIVE TEST RATE: Solano’s 7-day percent positivity rate was 4.8% today, down from Wednesday’s 5.5%. COMPARE: Today’s California rate is 1.8%. [Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Center] Today’s U.S. rate is 4.89%. [Source: CDC COVID Data Tracker.]
HOSPITALIZATIONS:
CURRENT hospitalizations were up today from 32 to 35 persons, but still far above the range we saw during last summer.
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 again today. Solano Public Health has not informed the public on COVID hospitalizations since October 15! Total COVID hospitalizations in Solano remain at 2,838 since the beginning of the outbreak.
ICU Bed Availability is 30% today, up from only 22% on Wednesday, remaining in the YELLOW danger zone. We remain in the worrisome range we saw during last winter’s surge.
Ventilator Availability today rose from 64% to 67%.
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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