Monday, November 22: Solano County reports 4 new deaths (10 in last 7 days), and 83 new infections. Solano remains in SUBSTANTIAL rate of transmission.  Benicia sees 3 new infections, remains in MODERATE transmission.

Solano County COVID dashboard SUMMARY:

[Sources: see below.]

DEATHS: Solano reported 4 new COVID-related deaths today, 10 over the past 7 days.  One who died was age 18-49,  one age 50-64 and two over 65.  Two were Hispanic/Latinx, one White, (and one unreported).  The County reported 27 COVID deaths in September, 18 in October, and 10 so far in November.  A new total of 325 Solano residents have died of COVID or COVID-related causes over the course of the pandemic.

The Fairfield Daily Republic interviewed Dr. Matyas and reported on the recent surge in COVID-relate deaths:

“Four more Covid-related deaths were reported Monday in Solano County and the Public Health Division is reviewing as many as a dozen more reports.  The four individuals – two men, two women – all lived at home and had significant health issues. Three were unvaccinated, the county reported. Both women were over 65, while one man was in his 40s and the other was 64.  That brings the pandemic total of deaths to 325, with 68 from the recent surge that started after July 4. Of that total, 14 had been vaccinated – about 20.6%. The deaths were from mid-September to the end of October.”

CASES: The County reported 83 new COVID cases today.  CASES BY AGE GROUP: 9 of these 83 cases (11%) were youth and children under 18.  42 were age 18-49, 21 were age 50-64, and 11 were 65+.  Below is my color-coded analysis of cases reported by age group, as a percentage of total cases.  I am showing increases in red and decreases in green as reported by Solano County since April of 2020.  Note  the steady increase among children and youth of Solano County.  The population of those age 0-17 in Solano County is roughly 22%.COMPARE: U.S. cases among age 0-17 as percentage of total cases is at 15.4% as of today. (From the CDC covid-data-tracker.)

COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION RATE: Over the last 7 days, Solano has seen SUBSTANTIAL community transmission, with 262 new cases (down from 271 on Friday).  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 325 ACTIVE cases is up from Friday’s 366, but still far above our summer rates.

CURRENT hospitalizations were down today from 26 to 22 persons, but still 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.  Solano Public Health did not update its age and race hospitalizations charts today.  Solano hospitals have previously reported a total of 3,017 COVID patients since the beginning of the outbreak.

ICU Bed Availability is 38% today, down a bit from 39% on Monday, in the County’s GREEN zone, but we remain in the worrisome range we saw during last winter’s surge.

Ventilator Availability today rose today from 75% to 77%.

MASK MANDATE

• Nov 18, 2021 – Benicia City Council decides to keep mask mandate in place, will review again on Dec. 7 and
• Nov 18, 2021 – Open Letter to Benicia City Council: Dr. Richard Fleming on mask mandate
• Aug 24, 2021 – Benicia Mask Mandate, City Resolution 21-88
• (Above) – Explanation of the CDC’s population-based transmission rate for Benicia and for Solano

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.