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

COVID deaths increasing in Solano County

NOTE: The information below is not the latest.  CLICK HERE for today’s latest information.
By Roger Straw, Monday, December 6, 2021
[See also New York Times, Coronavirus: What we know about Omicron.]

Monday, December 6: Solano County reports
5 new deaths and 154 new infections. Solano County remains in a SUBSTANTIAL rate of community transmission;  Benicia rates MODERATE transmission over past 7 days.

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

DEATHS: Solano reported 5 new deaths today.  The County reported 27 COVID deaths in September, 18 in October, 11 in November, and 12 so far in early December (23 in the last 19 days, since November 17).  Of the 5 new deaths, 2 were age 18-49, 1 was age 50-65 and 2 were 65+.  A total of 338 Solano residents have now died of COVID or COVID-related causes over the course of the pandemic.

CASES: The County reported 154 new COVID cases over the weekend.  CASES BY AGE GROUP: 37 of these 154 cases (24%) were youth and children under 18.  78 (51%) were age 18-49, 25  (16%) were age 50-64, and 14 (9%) 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 15.5% as of today. (From the CDC covid-data-tracker.)

COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION RATE: Over the last 7 days, Solano has seen SUBSTANTIAL community transmission, with 343 new cases (down from 368 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 402 ACTIVE cases is up from last Friday’s 333, and still far above our summer rates.

CASES BY CITY on Monday, December 6:

  • Benicia added 7 new cases today, a total of 1,606 cases since the outbreak began, and 13 cases over the last 7 days.  This moves Benicia back into the MODERATE rate of community transmission for the first time since November 22 (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 7 new cases today, total of 2,603 cases.
  • Fairfield added 36 new cases today, total of 12,631 cases.
  • Rio Vista reported 1 new case today, total of 635 cases.
  • Suisun City added 17 new cases today, total of 3,343 cases.
  • Vacaville added 47 new cases today, a total of 12,481 cases.
  • Vallejo added 38 new cases today, a total of 13,777 cases.
  • Unincorporated added 1 new case today, a total of 146 cases.

POSITIVE TEST RATE:  Solano’s 7-day percent positivity rate was 5.0% today, down from Friday’s 5.3%.  COMPARE: Today’s California rate is 1.4%.  [Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Center]  Today’s U.S. rate is 8.26%. [Source: CDC COVID Data Tracker.] 

HOSPITALIZATIONS:

CURRENT hospitalizations were down today from 22 to 21 persons, 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.  Last week, updates showed 156 previously unreported hospitalizations.  Solano hospitals have reported a total of 3,173 COVID patients since the beginning of the outbreak.  (Data on age is more reliable than that on race/ethnicity.)

ICU Bed Availability is down dramatically today, from 51% on Friday to only 29% today, falling once again into the County’s YELLOW danger zone.

Ventilator Availability today is down a bit today from 77% to 76%.

MASK MANDATE – ALERT!
Benicia’s mask mandate will remain in effect, but could be altered at City Council meeting TOMORROW – on December 7.
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.

Sources