Monday, August 16: Solano County reported 5 new deaths and 250 new infections over the weekend.

Solano County COVID dashboard SUMMARY:

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

DEATHS: Solano County reported 5 new deaths today, 1 age 50-64, and 4 age 65+.  A new total of 259 of us have died of COVID since the pandemic began.

CASES: The County reported  250 new COVID cases over the weekend, 83 per day!  CASES-PER DAY TREND: We are clearly experiencing a dramatic “summer surge” in cases.  Cases-per-day were trending downward in the Spring, but rose rapidly in July and are extremely high in early August:

ACTIVE CASES: Solano’s 838 ACTIVE cases is down from Friday’s 910, but still very high.  Recent active case numbers are up alarmingly from 212 on July 2, and higher than anything since last February’s surge.

Hospitalizations up again today

CURRENT hospitalizations rose today from 105 to 129 persons.

ICU Beds Available were up slightly today from 20% to 21%, in the yellow danger zone and lower than any time since January 29, 2021.

Ventilators Available remained steady today at 56%, lower than anytime since February 26, 2021.

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.  The County reported 3 new hospitalizations today, 2 persons age 50-64, and 1 age 65+. Percentages remain the same.  The Age Group chart shows a total of 2,046 persons hospitalized since the beginning of the outbreak, in the following age groups:

Hospitalizations are also recorded on the County’s demographic chart labeled “Hospitalizations by Race / Ethnicity.”  The chart was updated today, adding 2 persons, both White.  Here are the current numbers.  Interestingly, the total doesn’t square with the total by age groups.

Face Coverings…

Good news!  Benicia Mayor Steve Young and Vice Mayor Tom Campbell are proposing a mandatory face covering policy for Benicia.  Benicia City Council will address the matter in the first of a two-step process tomorrow, Tuesday, August 17.  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 latest 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 Monday, August 16:

• Benicia added 10 new cases today, a total of 1,177 cases since the outbreak began, 4.2% of its population of 27,570.
• Dixon added 14 new cases today, total of 2,114 cases, 10.6% of its population of 19,794.
• Fairfield added 54 new cases today, total of 10,291 cases, 8.7% of its population of 117,149.
• Rio Vista added 2 new cases today, total of 464 cases, 4.9% of its population of 9,416.
• Suisun City added 13 new cases today, total of 2,673 cases, 9.0% of its population of 29,447.
• Vacaville added 60 new cases today, a total of 9,900 cases, 10.0% its of population of 98,807.
• Vallejo added 96 new cases today, a total of 11,177 cases, 9.3% of its population of 119,544.
• Unincorporated added 1 new case today, a total of 118 cases (population figures not available).

COMPARE: From the most recent report on Solano County’s COVID Dashboard, Friday, August 13:

The data on this page is from today’s and the previous Solano County COVID-19 Dashboard.  The Dashboard is full of much more information and updated weekdays 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

• Solano County Coronavirus Dashboard (posted on the County website today).
• See also my ARCHIVE of daily Solano COVID updates (an excel spreadsheet).