Three of California’s counties have recorded over 60 cases per day per 100,000 population over the last 7 days. Solano County had the highest of any county, at 67 new cases per day. Stay tuned for tonight’s Solano Health Department details. (Due to the holidays, Solano has not updated its COVID Dashboard since June 30.)
Though new case reports have climbed in California, local officials have hesitated to reimpose mask mandates or limits on public indoor settings. Residents relaxed outdoors in Mission Dolores Park in San Francisco in June. Credit…Mike Kai Chen for The New York Times
California is in the grip of its third-largest coronavirus surge of the pandemic, with roughly 19,000 new cases being reported here each day on average, according to a New York Times database. The true number of people falling sick is undoubtedly even higher, since most at-home test results aren’t included in official case counts.
Experts say the surge is being driven by the Omicron subvariant known as BA.5, which has rapidly become dominant in the United States and is especially good at infecting people even if they’ve been vaccinated, boosted and already had the virus.
“It’s highly immune-evasive, and that is why it’s causing trouble,” said Dr. Eric Topol, a professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research in San Diego. “And it comes along in California at the same time that we basically have this delusion that the pandemic is over.”
Registered nurse Navneet Chouhan, left, with Contra Costa Health Services (CCHS), puts a bandage on Venus Basaee, 6, after she got the COVID-19vaccine as her mother Mojgan Deldari looks on during a school-base vaccine clinic at Nystrom Elementary Auditorium in Richmond on Nov. 9. RAY CHAVEZ — BAY AREA NEWS GROUP
The entire Bay Area is at the high community risk level for COVID- 19 at which federal regulators recommend everyone wear face masks indoors as newer and more immunity-evasive versions of the omicron variant continue to spread across the country.
While infections remain well below the January peak driven by the initial omicron strains, they’re still at February’s elevated levels and show no signs of declining, Bay Area health officials said Tuesday.
“The pattern we’re seeing in our data does make me think a sustained surge is possible,” Santa Clara County Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody said. “Previous patterns were we went up and then down, but we went up and now we’re staying at a high plateau.” Continue reading Bay Area COVID cases are sky-high→
As a Benicia newbie, moving to this wonderful city in 2019, I recall being shocked by the negative advertising filling my mailbox during the 2020 city council campaign. The tone of such a small-town election seemed to be the antithesis of living in such a welcoming community, where drivers downtown stop for you, even if you are not in a crosswalk.
I was later appalled to learn this negative advertising was from a Political Action Committee (PAC) most of its nearly $250,000 coming from Valero. The PAC seemed dedicated to attacking nominees they want to keep out of Benicia’s city council, and flooding our community with praise for the candidates they want.
Average Daily Cases over last 7 days indicates Solano is California’s hottest Hot Spot
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