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COVID-19 in Benicia and Solano County: Encouraging, but still on the move

NOTE: The information below is not the latest.  TAP HERE for today’s latest information.

By Roger Straw, Wednesday, March 2, 2022

Solano County reported 96 new COVID infections since last Friday.  Benicia’s 7-day case count remains in SUBSTANTIAL transmission rate, but only 1 case above MODERATE.  Solano County continues in HIGH transmission rate, but is nearing SUBSTANTIAL.

Solano Public Health COVID dashboard, Wednesday, March 2, 2022:

NOTE: Solano County Public Health will update its COVID Dashboard ONLY ON MONDAYS & THURSDAYS as of March 14, 2022

DEATHS:  Solano reported no new deaths in today’s report. Trending: Fifteen new deaths were reported in February, ALL over 65 years of age.  We can’t be sure this is a final number because the County often post-dates deaths and hospitalizations. Still, it’s encouraging.  Until February, the County saw increasing COVID-related deaths each month since last November, rising to 30 in January.  A total of 396 Solano residents have now died of COVID or COVID-related causes over the course of the pandemic.

CASES BY AGE GROUP: The color-coded chart (below) shows an alarming steady increase among youth and children in Solano County.  The chart displays quarterly and recent snapshots in time by age group, each as a percentage of total cases since the outbreak began.  Increases are in red and decreases are in green as reported by Solano County.  Note the continuing increase among children & youth of Solano County.  The population of those age 0-17 in Solano County is roughly 22%.
TRANSMISSION RATE: Solano is still experiencing a HIGH transmission rate, with a total of 514 new cases over the last 7 days. Encouraging: this is down from 1,126 at last report, and approaching the CDC’s SUBSTANTIAL rate for the first time since December 22 of last year.  CDC FORMULA: Based on Solano County’s population, 450 or more cases in 7 days places Solano in the CDC’s population-based definition of a HIGH transmission rate.  We would need to drop below 225 cases in 7 days to rate as having only MODERATE community transmission.

ACTIVE CASES: Solano reported 544 ACTIVE cases today, down from 604 at last report, still almost double the County’s 329 active cases on December 1.

CASES BY CITY – Wednesday, March 2, 2022:

  • BENICIA added 10 new cases since last Friday, a total of 3,018 cases since the outbreak began.  TRANSMISSION RATE: **Benicia has seen only 14 new infections in the last 7 days, just barely remaining in the CDC’s SUBSTANTIAL rate of transmission.  Only one fewer case will drop Benicia into the desired MODERATE rate of transmission.  For a city with Benicia’s population, anything over 27 cases in 7 days is considered HIGH TRANSMISSION. (See chart below.)

  • Dixon added 15 new cases since last Friday, total of 4,148 cases.
  • Fairfield added 71 new cases since last Friday, total of 21,241 cases.
  • Rio Vista added 4 new cases since last Friday, total of 1,071 cases.
  • Suisun City added 16 new cases since last Friday, total of 5,585 cases.
  • Vacaville added 58 new cases since last Friday, a total of 19,426 cases.
  • Vallejo added 107 new cases since last Friday, a total of 24,860 cases.
  • Unincorporated added 0 new cases today, a total of 191 cases.

TEST RATE:  Solano County’s 7-Day Percent Positive Test Rate shot up after Christmas and has continued through last week’s very high 13%, but fell dramatically this week to only 8% today. Even at this lower rate, SOLANO DOES NOT COMPARE FAVORABLY: The CALIFORNIA 7-day % positive rate fell today from 3.2% to only 2.5%.  [Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Center]  AND the U.S. 7-day % positive rate fell today from 5.3% to only 4.1%. [Source: CDC COVID Data Tracker.] 

HOSPITALIZATIONS:

CURRENT The number of those currently hospitalized with COVID in Solano County rose today from 39 to 45 persons.  Current hospitalizations don’t tell the whole story, as it reflects both admissions and discharges.  Only from the increase in total hospitalizations can we know how many new admissions have come to our hospitals.

TOTAL hospitalizations over the course of the pandemic – Solano County’s total hospitalized must be independently discovered in the County’s occasional update of hospitalizations by Age Group and by Race/Ethnicity.  Solano Public Health has not updated its Age Group and Race/Ethnicity charts since February 18.  Our known total since the beginning of the outbreak (as of Feb 18) was 3,693 Solano residents hospitalized.

ICU Bed Availability in Solano County rose today from 24% to 27%, still in the Yellow danger zone.

Ventilator Availability  improved today from 66% to 71% available. 

HOW DOES TODAY’S REPORT COMPARE?  See recent reports and others going back to April 20, 2020 in 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.

See also my BENINDY ARCHIVE of daily Solano COVID updates (an excel spreadsheet).  I have also archived the hundreds of full CORONAVIRUS REPORTS posted here almost daily on the Benicia Independent since April 2020.

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