All posts by Roger Straw

Editor, owner, publisher of The Benicia Independent
Benicia CA, Benicia City Council, Benicia Mayor Steve Young, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Delta variant, Rio Vista CA, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Officer Bela Matyas

Benicia council to determine mask mandate policy

Possible Sept. 14 vote in Vallejo

Vallejo Times-Herald, by Richard Freedman, August 21, 2021
Women wear masks as they talk on a bench outside of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in downtown Benicia on Friday. (Chris Riley/Times-Herald)
Women wear masks as they talk on a bench outside of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in downtown Benicia on Friday. (Chris Riley/Times-Herald)

The Benicia City Council is expected to re-instate mask mandates — vaccinated or not — for entering businesses in a vote of its five members at Tuesday night’s meeting.

Despite an increase in COVID cases traced to the Delta variant, Solano County has not joined other Bay Area counties in requiring masks for all. Current protocols dictate those who have been vaccinated don’t need to mask up while those who aren’t vaccinated are asked to mask.

“The fact the county is not going to have one (mask mandate for all) puts the pressure on cities like Benicia to act on our own,” said Mayor Steve Young by phone Friday.

Young said Dr. Bela Matyas, Solano County Public Health Director, is expected to “testify” either in person or by phone during the upcoming Benicia council meeting.

Bay Area ‘smoke ceiling’ should begin clearing Saturday, but haze will linger, forecasters say

Benicia Mayor Steve Young

“We have eight different (county) public health directors determining a mask mandate is necessary and he’s taken the opposite direction,” Young said.

In Vallejo, it’s status quo, said Vice Mayor Rozzana Verder-Aliga, vacationing this week in Hawaii.

“The city council is not considering mask mandates at this time although I have received an email request from a council member to put it on the agenda,” Verder-Aliga said. “My opinion is to follow Solano County COVID-19 safety guidelines for now. I personally wear masks at indoor events and at my office per Solano County protocols. I am fully vaccinated as well as my entire family and plan to take booster shots when available.”

Verder-Aliga’s advice to Vallejo residents “is to get vaccinated and follow CDC COVID-19 guidelines.”

Though Vallejo Mayor Robert McConnell was unavailable for comment, Interim Vallejo City Manager Anne Cardwell said she is “going to broach the topic of mask requirements in public spaces and COVID” at the Vallejo City Council’s Tuesday meeting, according to Christina Lee, Vallejo’s Communications and Public Information Officer.

“If it is to be agendized, we are potentially looking at the Sept. 14th meeting for that item,” Lee said, adding that “with the rise of the Delta variant, the city is requiring masks in all city buildings regardless of vaccination status at this time.”

Young said Benicia’s vaccination rate is second in the county to Rio Vista, “which isn’t surprising because of their retirement community.”

The Benicia mayor contends that with the county’s less restrictive protocols compared to Contra Costa County, “there are people refusing to shop in town. They’ll cross a bridge because they’re not comfortable going into Raley’s or Safeway without a mask mandate.”

A mask mandate “is a better option than leaving it up to the whims of an individual,” Young said. “And a mask mandate is also for the protection of employees. It’s about spreading the virus to each other. For example, employees at Raley’s are exposed to people all day long and if there are people unvaccinated and unmasked, it puts them (the employees) at greater risk.”

Young believes the Benicia City Council will pass a mask mandate, with tighter restrictions for city employees a possible topic for future meetings. Currently, city employees “simply have to fill out a form and send it to HR that attests to their (vaccination) status.”

In the near future, Young said city employees may have to show proof of vaccination with the CDC card.

“I’ve been trying to convince people to get vaccinated over a year now,” Young said. “Certainly, there’s a segment of the community that isn’t going to get vaccinated unless forced to and we’re not talking about a mandate forcing vaccinations.”

Young said his “first obligation as an elected official to protect the health and safety of our community. I see this as a necessary step in that direction.”

If the Benicia City Council passes the mask mandate, businesses will be required to post signs indicating masks must be worn indoors where people congregate like restaurants or in a real estate office lobby.

“If you’re by yourself in an office, you won’t have to wear a mask,” Young said.

People walk along 1st Street in downtown Benicia as they shop on Friday.(Chris Riley/Times-Herald)
Benicia CA, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Delta variant, Hospitalizations, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Department, Vaccine

Summer surge continues in Solano cities, 3 deaths, with new infections and active cases reaching winter surge levels

By Roger Straw, Friday, August 20, 2021

Friday, August 20: Summer surge in Solano, report of 470 new infections today, 1,087 ACTIVE cases.  Percentage of youths increasing.

Solano County COVID dashboard SUMMARY:
[Sources: see below.  See also my ARCHIVE spreadsheet of daily Solano COVID updates.]

DEATHS: The County reported 3 new deaths today, 1 person age 50-64 and 2 age 65+.  All three were African Americans.  Total deaths now number 262.

Percentage of cases by age groups. Click to enlarge.

CASES: The County reported  470 new COVID cases over the last two days, 235 per day, highest daily increase since January 19! Case numbers show a startling increase in the PERCENTAGE OF YOUNG PERSONS age 0-17, increasing in just these past two days by 0.2% to a new high of 13.2% of total cases.  For comparison, the percentage of youth cases has increased very slowly over the course of the pandemic, starting in the low 6% numbers, and very gradually reaching 12% in mid-April of 2021.  CASES-PER DAY TREND: We are experiencing a dramatic “summer surge” now.  Cases-per-day were trending downward in the Spring, but rose rapidly in July and are skyrocketing here in August:ACTIVE CASES: Solano’s 1,087 ACTIVE cases rose again from Wednesday’s 946, up alarmingly from 212 on July 2, and higher than anything since the winter surge.

POSITIVE TEST RATE:  INCREDIBLY HIGH – much higher than US & California!  Our 7-day average percent positivity rate was down slightly today from 20.3% Wednesday to 20.1% today, still 2½ times the purple tier margin, over 4 times today’s California rate of 4.7% and nearly twice today’s U.S. rate of 11.4%. [Source: Johns Hopkins]  WARNING: The Delta Variant is here in Solano County and spreading fast.  Time to mask up again – watch out and take care!  
Hospitalizations

CURRENT hospitalizations were down slightly today from 143 to 138 persons, still higher than any time since the winter surge.

ICU Bed Availability was down today from 28% to 24%, in the yellow danger zone.

Ventilator Availability was down dramatically today from 63% to a new 54%, lower than anytime since Feb. 19.

TOTAL Hospitalized – The County’s Monday-Friday dashboard shows an intake/discharge total of CURRENTLY hospitalized cases (above), but never reports on the TOTAL hospitalized over the course of the pandemic.  That total must be independently discovered in the County’s occasional update of the Hospitalizations by Age Group chart.  The County updated its Hospitalizations by Age Group chart today, reporting 9 new hospitalizations, 2 age 18-49, 2 age 50-64, and 5 age 65+.  Percentages remain the same.  The Age Group chart shows a total of 2,056 persons hospitalized since the beginning of the outbreak, in the following age groups:

Age Group Hospitalizations % of Total
0-17 36 2%
18-49 585 28%
50-64 549 27%
65+ 886 43%
TOTAL 2,056 100%

Hospitalizations are also recorded on the County’s demographic chart labeled “Hospitalizations by Race / Ethnicity.”  The chart was updated today, adding 9 persons, 4 Black, 2 Hispanic/Latinx, and 3 White.  Here are the current numbers, percentages remaining unchanged.  Interestingly, the total doesn’t square with the total by age groups.

Race / Ethnicity Hospitalizations % of Total
Asians 323 17%
Black / African American 336 17%
Hispanic / Latinx 555 29%
White 631 33%
Multirace / Others 84 4%
TOTAL 1,919 100%
Face Coverings…

Good news!  Benicia City Council voted this week to move forward next week in consideration of a Citywide indoors mask mandate for all public places.  This was the first of a two-step process that will return to Council for the second step on next Tuesday, August 24.  See also California’s recent Guidance for the Use of Face Coverings.  The guidelines include a recommendation for universal masking indoors statewide, adding of Adult and Senior Care Facilities to settings where all individuals must wear masks indoors, and a reference to new requirements for unvaccinated workers.  Some California cities and counties are returning to mandatory masks for all in crowded places.  In the Bay Area, Solano County REMAINS the only holdout against even RECOMMENDING masks in public indoors spaces.  It looks like Dr. Matyas will refuse to make the difficult decisions.  Sad – and dangerous!

STUDY SHOWS HIGHER RATE OF “BREAKTHROUGH” CASES AMONG THE VACCINATED

See info here: Post-Vaccine COVID-19 Cases by the California Department of Public Health, August 11, 2021.  From the report: “For the week of August 7, the average daily COVID-19 case rate among unvaccinated Californians is 51 per 100,000 and the average daily COVID-19 case rate among fully vaccinated Californians is much lower at 8.2 per 100,000.”  [I’m no mathematician – could it be that this 51 to 8.2 ratio suggests that one in every seven California cases is a vaccinated person?  Someone please confirm or correct me! rogrmail at gmail dot com]

Wearing masks again, social distancing & vaccination…

The “breakthrough” numbers are small in comparison to the huge surge in cases and hospitalizations among the unvaccinated, but it’s still a significant new factor.  We were just beginning to associate more freely with fully vaccinated friends and family, and now we understand that a small percentage of the vaccinated among us may be asymptomatic and unknowingly transmitting the virus, and inevitably helping spread the disease to someone who knows someone, who knows someone else, who knows yet another someone who is not vaccinated, or who is too young or too health-compromised to be vaccinated – and who may end up seriously ill or even dead!  Please mask indoors in public now, and maybe even indoors with vaccinated family and friends!  And PLEASE talk to anyone you know who isn’t vaccinated.  This thing ain’t over yet!

Cases by City on Friday, August 20:
  • Benicia added 18 new cases today, a total of 1,205 cases since the outbreak began, 4.4% of its population of 27,570.
  • Dixon added 26 new cases today, total of 2,160 cases, 10.9% of its population of 19,794.
  • Fairfield added 133(!) new cases today, total of 10,527 cases, 9.0% of its population of 117,149.
  • Rio Vista added 4 new cases today, total of 472 cases, 5.0% of its population of 9,416.
  • Suisun City added 44(!) new cases today, total of 2,738 cases, 9.3% of its population of 29,447.
  • Vacaville added 123(!) new cases today, a total of 10,125 cases, 10.2% its of population of 98,807.
  • Vallejo added 120(!) new cases today, a total of 11,416 cases, 9.5% of its population of 119,544.
  • Unincorporated added 2 new cases today, a total of 121 cases (population figures not available).

Continue reading Summer surge continues in Solano cities, 3 deaths, with new infections and active cases reaching winter surge levels →

Citizen Oversight Board, Police violence, Solano County Sheriff

Solano Sheriff Deputies Knocked A Woman Unconscious And Then Lied About It, A Federal Lawsuit Says

[Editor: Here’s ANOTHER good reason for a Solano County Sheriff Oversight Board.  County Supervisors, please take action!  Oh, and… let’s elect a new Sheriff in 2022.  – R.S.]

‘I think she’s out,’ Solano Sheriff deputy says after violent arrest

Associated Press, by Christopher Weber, August 18, 2021
Joe Powell is comforted by his daughter, Nakia Porter, right, during a news conference to announce the filing of a federal lawsuit brought against two Solano County Sheriff’s deputies, Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021, in Sacramento, Calif. The lawsuit stems from an incident where the pair, and Porter’s three daughters, had pulled over on the side of the road in Dixon on Aug. 6, 2020, so Powell could take over the driving from his daughter. As they were stopped the two deputies’ squad car pulled up behind and confronted Porter and her father and eventually knocked Porter unconscious and arrested her, then later lied about the incident. The suit accuses the deputies of violating state federal civil rights statutes by engaging in “unlawful seizure, assault and excessive force.” (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

A woman who pulled off a road to change drivers during a trip with her father and three young children was knocked unconscious and arrested by two Northern California sheriff’s deputies, who then lied about the encounter to responding paramedics and on official reports, according to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday.

Body cameras worn by the deputies with the Solano County Sheriff’s Office recorded them pulling guns on Nakia Porter before slamming her to the pavement while handcuffing her along a rural road in the town of Dixon on the night of Aug. 6, 2020. Porter’s father, Joe Powell, was also placed in handcuffs and briefly detained.

Porter was jailed overnight on suspicion of resisting arrest, but never charged. She said the ordeal was confusing and dehumanizing.

“I was doing my best to do everything right, giving no reason to be treated like this,” said Porter, 33, who is Black.

The lawsuit brought by attorney Yasin Almadani accuses the deputies of violating state and federal civil rights statutes by engaging in “unlawful seizure, assault and excessive force.”

“Thankfully, the video evidence contradicted the fabricated facts,” Almadani said. “So what occurred here, we believe, was a racially motivated beating and terrorizing of a Black family.”

Solano County sheriff’s officials couldn’t immediately comment because the department hadn’t received a copy of the complaint by Wednesday afternoon, Sgt. Christine Castillo said in an email.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento asks a judge to order a jury trial for the arresting deputies, Dalton McCampbell and Lisa McDowell, and seeks unspecified damages.

The events unfolded as Porter and her 61-year-old father were making the 100-mile (160-kilometer) drive home to Orangevale, northeast of Sacramento, after a family trip to Oakland. Her two daughters, ages 3 and 6, and her 4-year-old niece were in the back seat. Porter is a software engineer, and her father, who’s retired, worked in computer networking.

Porter was behind the wheel when they stopped along an empty road in Dixon. The deputies’ squad car pulled up behind them with lights flashing. Porter already was out of the car and explained that they were just switching drivers and would be on their way, according to the court filing.

The deputies said they noticed the car had mismatched license plates — a California plate on the back of the car, and one from Maryland on the front.

“However, the deputies had called in the rear license plate to their dispatch and knew that it matched the description of the car and that there was no report of the car being stolen,” the filing states.

McCampbell, who had his gun drawn, ordered Porter back to the driver’s side, and he and his partner moved to detain her, according to edited bodycam footage acquired by Almadani and provided to The Associated Press. Almadani acquired more than 18 minutes of raw footage through a California Public Records Act request, and edited it down to just under 10 minutes.

“For those that are listening, I am not resisting,” Porter said into the deputies’ cameras. “You are not reading me my rights.”

The deputies pushed Porter against the squad car and then to the pavement while trying to handcuff her.

“Put your hands behind your back. Get on your stomach,” McCampbell shouted.

The footage gets very shaky, and it’s hard to see whether Porter is resisting. Porter and the court filing allege the deputies punched her in the head and the stomach, kneeled on her back and pulled her hair. She said she passed out seconds after the deputies closed the handcuffs.

“I think she’s out,” McCambell said on the video.

Porter, who is 5-foot-2 (1.6 meters) and 125 pounds (57 kilograms), said she was dragged unconscious to the back of the squad car, where she came to about five minutes later.

When paramedics arrived, McCampbell is heard saying Porter fought them, was knocked out for about 20 seconds and was able to walk herself to the squad car. McDowell estimates to the paramedics that Porter was unconscious for about five seconds.

Porter requested she be transported to a hospital, according to the lawsuit.

“Deputies McCampbell and McDowell denied the request, continuing to lie to the paramedics by minimizing the assault and the injuries they had inflicted on Ms. Porter,” the court filing said.

The lawsuit accuses the deputies of lying on their arrest reports about Porter fighting them and the length of time she was unconscious. Contact information for McCampbell and McDowell could not be found.

The suit also names a superior officer who signed off on the reports.

Cedric Alexander, a police use-of-force expert, was troubled by the video. He wondered why the deputies seemed to rush to detain Porter and Powell without first taking actions to de-escalate the situation, especially with three young kids in the car.

“What’s concerning here is the use of force,” said Alexander, a former president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives. “There needs to be a full investigation conducted outside of the sheriff’s department, preferably by a district attorney’s office.”

Benicia CA, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Delta variant, Hospitalizations, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Department, Vaccine

Three unvaccinated Solano residents die of recent COVID surge, 30 currently in ICU beds

Solano reports 1st deaths from latest Covid surge, 5 new overall

Fairfield Daily Republic, by Todd R. Hansen, August 18, 2021
A pedestrian wears a face mask to slow the spread of the virus that causes Covid-19, while walking along Travis Boulevard in Fairfield, Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021. (Aaron Rosenblatt/Daily Republic)

FAIRFIELD — Three Solano County residents have died, at least in part, due to the Covid-19 surge that started shortly after July 4.

Each was unvaccinated, the Solano County Public Health Division reported.

“So these are the first fatalities from this surge . . . and it is hard to imagine there won’t be more,” Dr. Bela Matyas, the county public health officer, said in a phone interview Monday. “A lot of people have been hospitalized.”

The 129 residents in area hospitals due to Covid-19, as of Monday, is the highest number since the surge began. Thirty of those residents are in intensive care units, representing about half of all ICU patients.

Dr. Bela Matyas, Solano County Health Officer

“So hospital impact is significant,” Matyas said.

The most recent of the three fatalities occurred Aug. 2. There was one man who was between 50 and 65; one man was older than 65; and one woman who was older than 65. All lived at home, the county reported.

Prior to these deaths, the most recent fatalities include one in May and one in June.

Two other deaths reported Monday were from last year, taking the pandemic total to 259. Both – one man, one woman – were described as “very elderly,” Matyas said. Each lived at home as well.

Matyas reported that for July, 7% of those who have tested positive for the novel coronavirus were vaccinated; 7.5% for June and July combined. He said he is still gathering data on the vaccination status for those who have ended up in a hospital, but knows that number will be lower than 7%.

The county reported 250 additional cases since Friday’s update, bringing the county total to 37,914.

Fairfield added 54 cases to take its total to 10,291. Vallejo is at 11,177 cases after 96 new reports. Vacaville added 60 cases to bring its count to 9,900, the county reported.

Suisun City (2,673) added 13 new cases; Dixon (2,114) added 14; Benicia (1,177) added 10; Rio Vista (464) added two; and the total in the unincorporated area of the county climbed to 125 after one new case, the county reported.

The number of active cases in the county was at 838 Monday, down 72 from Friday’s report.

The seven-day positivity rate decreased from 18.9% to 18.6%, the county reported.

The county also reported that 60% of residents who are 12 or older are now fully vaccinated, up from 59% in Friday’s update. The percentage of those who have at least one shot held at 72%.

continued…