#wearamask, Benicia CA, Benicia City Council, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Face coverings, Hospitalizations, Omicron variant, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Department, Vaccine, Vaccine mandate

Solano County: one new death, 44 new infections

NOTE: The information below is not the latest.  CLICK HERE for today’s latest information.
By Roger Straw, Wednesday, December 15, 2021
[See Important details on California’s new mask mandate AND the extension of Benicia’s mask mandate BELOW.]

Wednesday, December 15: Solano County reports 44 new infections and 1 death.  Solano remains in a SUBSTANTIAL rate of community transmission;  Benicia drops from HIGH into a SUBSTANTIAL rate of community transmission.

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

DEATHS: Solano reported 1 new death today, someone aged 65+.  The County reported 27 COVID deaths in September, 18 in October, 11 in November, and 14 so far in December (25 of us have died in the last 28 days, since November 17).  A total of 340 Solano residents have now died of COVID or COVID-related causes over the course of the pandemic.

CASES BY AGE GROUP: The County reported 44 new COVID cases since Monday.  8 of these 44 new cases (18%) were youth and children under 18.  27 (61%) were age 18-49, 6 (14%) were age 50-64, and only 3 (7%) were 65+.
BELOW: color-coded analysis of CASES REPORTED BY AGE GROUP, expressed as a percentage of TOTAL CASES.  Increases are in red and decreases are 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 children and youth aged 0-17 as percentage of total cases is at 15.7% as of today.  Note also for comparison the CDC’s U.S. chart below, noting the age groups in blue that have case rates higher than their percent of population. (From the CDC covid-data-tracker.)

(Click image to enlarge.)

COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION RATE: Over the last 7 days, Solano has seen SUBSTANTIAL community transmission, with 333 new cases, down from 346 on Monday.  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 250 ACTIVE cases is up from from Monday’s 223 active cases.

CASES BY CITY on Wednesday, December 15:

  • Benicia added only 3 new cases today, a total of 1,637 cases since the outbreak began, and 20 cases over the last 7 days, dropping from HIGH transmission into the SUBSTANTIAL rate of community transmission.  (see chart below).  Based on Benicia population, MODERATE is defined as less than 14 cases over the last 7 days, SUBSTANTIAL is 14-27 cases, and HIGH is 28 or more cases.  Benicia will need to maintain fewer than 14 new cases-per-7-days for 30 consecutive days before relaxing its mask mandate.  Note above that Solano County is currently experiencing SUBSTANTIAL transmission.

  • Dixon added 2 new cases today, total of 2,628 cases.
  • Fairfield added 13 new cases today, total of 12,736 cases.
  • Rio Vista reported 0 new cases today, total of 640 cases.
  • Suisun City added 2 new cases today, total of 3,364 cases.
  • Vacaville added 11 new cases today, a total of 12,574 cases.
  • Vallejo added 13 new cases today, a total of 13,883 cases.
  • Unincorporated added no new cases today, a total of 150 cases.

POSITIVE TEST RATE:  Solano’s 7-day percent positivity rate was 4.0% today, down from Monday’s 4.2%.  COMPARE: Today’s California rate is 1.8%.  [Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Center]  Today’s U.S. rate is 7.18%. [Source: CDC COVID Data Tracker.] 

HOSPITALIZATIONS:

CURRENT hospitalizations were up today from 15 persons to only 18 persons.

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 adjusted its age and race hospitalizations charts today, inexplicably showing 2 fewer (!) hospitalizations since Monday.  I’ll not try to explain or analyze that….  Solano hospitals have reported a total of 3,180 COVID patients since the beginning of the outbreak.  (Data on age is more reliable than that on race/ethnicity.)

ICU Bed Availability is down today, from 57% on Monday to 50% today, still in the County’s safe GREEN zone.

Ventilator Availability today is down slightly today from 82% to 81%.

TODAY: STATE OF CALIFORNIA ISSUES NEW MASK MANDATE

From COVID19.CA.GOV:
Wear your mask in indoor public spaces and workplaces!
Due to a recent increase in cases, CDPH has mandated that everyone in California wear a mask in indoor public spaces and workplaces. The order is in effect December 15, 2021 to January 15, 2022.  LEARN MORE…

BENICIA’S MASK MANDATE REMAINS IN PLACE – DETAILS…
On December 7, Benicia City Council chose to keep the city’s mask mandate in place for another 30 days and review again in January. All Councilmembers expressed confidence that Benicia’s case numbers are likely to remain in MODERATE transmission for a 30-day period soon, [note that this has NOT been the case – Benicia has lapsed back into the HIGH transmission rate].  After 30 days in the MODERATE rate, the City Manager is empowered to unilaterally lift the mask mandate.  Four Councilmembers (excluding Mr. Largaespada) chose to remain cautious under the current mandate, requiring the 30-days at MODERATE.  If all goes well, the mandate may have been lifted before a possible reconsideration at the January 18 Council meeting.  But if the mandate is still in place on January 18, Council has now directed staff to bring a recommendation at that time for changing the METRICS by which the City determines a safe cutoff date for lifting the mask mandate.   All members agreed that the 7-day-case-rate metric would be strengthened if in some fashion it could be combined with hospitalization rates and vaccination rates.  How to determine those rates, and how to combine them for a determination would be covered in the staff recommendation.
See the video discussion of the Dec. 7 Council meeting – CLICK HERE (then scroll down on the agenda and click on item number 21.A – UPDATE ON FACE COVERINGS MANDATE.)
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.  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.

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Sources