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Benicia moves back into SUBSTANTIAL transmission, breaking its 19-day streak of reporting MODERATE transmission of COVID-19

NOTE: The information below is not the latest.  CLICK HERE for today’s latest information.
By Roger Straw, Wednesday, November 24, 2021
[NOTE: Benicia will keep mask mandate in effect at least until Dec. 7 – click to scroll down for details.  – R.S.]

Wednesday, November 24: Solano County reports 88 new infections. Solano remains in SUBSTANTIAL rate of transmission.  Benicia sees 8 new infections, moves back into SUBSTANTIAL transmission.

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

DEATHS: Solano reported no new deaths today, 10 over the past 9 days.  The County reported 27 COVID deaths in September, 18 in October, and 10 so far in November.  A total of 325 Solano residents have died of COVID or COVID-related causes over the course of the pandemic.

CASES: The County reported 88 new COVID cases today.  CASES BY AGE GROUP: 13 of these 88 cases (15%) were youth and children under 18.  50 were age 18-49, 14 were age 50-64, and 11 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 age 0-17 as percentage of total cases is at 9.9% as of today. (From the CDC covid-data-tracker.)

COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION RATE: Over the last 7 days, Solano has seen SUBSTANTIAL community transmission, with 251 new cases (down from 262 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 339 ACTIVE cases is up from Monday’s 325, and still far above our summer rates.

CASES BY CITY on Wednesday, November 24:

  • Benicia added 8 new cases today, a total of 1,581 cases since the outbreak began, and 14 cases over the last 7 days.  This put Benicia back up into the SUBSTANTIAL transmission rate, and broke Benicia’s 19-day streak of recording MODERATE transmission – see chart below.  MODERATE is defined as less than 14 cases, based on Benicia population.  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 also currently experiencing SUBSTANTIAL transmission.

  • Dixon added 4 new cases today, total of 2,580 cases.
  • Fairfield added 16 new cases today, total of 12,505 cases.
  • Rio Vista reported 3 new cases today, total of 630 cases.
  • Suisun City added 9 new cases today, total of 3,306 cases.
  • Vacaville added 24 new cases today, a total of 12,324 cases.
  • Vallejo added 24 new cases today, a total of 13,629 cases.
  • Unincorporated added 0 new cases today, a total of 145 cases.

POSITIVE TEST RATE:  Solano’s 7-day percent positivity rate was 4.4% today, up slightly from Monday’s 4.3%.  COMPARE: Today’s California rate is 1.8%.  [Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Center]  Today’s U.S. rate is 6.13%. [Source: CDC COVID Data Tracker.] 

HOSPITALIZATIONS:

CURRENT hospitalizations were up today from 22 to 24 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 37% today, down a bit from 38% 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 fell today from 77% to 73%.

MASK MANDATE
Benicia’s mask mandate will remain in effect, at least through December 7.  See
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