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Solano falls today into CDC’s “Substantial” COVID transmission range, Benicia remains in “High” range

By Roger Straw, Friday, October 8, 2021

Friday, October 8: Solano County reports 124 new infections, drops from HIGH to SUBSTANTIAL transmission rate.  Benicia remains just barely in HIGH transmission rate.

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

DEATHS: Solano reported no new COVID-related deaths today.  But the County reported 39 COVID deaths over the last 39 days (from August 30).  A total of 305 Solano residents have died of COVID or COVID-related causes over the course of the pandemic.

CASES: The County reported 124 new COVID cases over the last two days, 62 per day.  AGES: 18 of these 124 cases (15%) were youth and children under 18.  52% were age 18-49, 16% were age 50-64, and 18% were 65+.

COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION RATE: Over the last 7 days, Solano has seen 375 new cases, down from 451  on Wednesday and 639 on Monday.  This good news drops Solano into the CDC’s population-based definition of a SUBSTANTIAL transmission rate for only the 2nd time since July 21.

(CDC FORMULA: Based on Solano County population of 449,432, the CDC would rate us in “SUBSTANTIAL” transmission with 225 cases over the last 7 days.  Double that, or 450 cases in the last 7 days would rank us in “HIGH” transmission.  Reference: CDC’s “Level of SARS-CoV-2 Community Transmission”.]

ACTIVE CASES: Solano’s 486 ACTIVE cases is up from Wednesday’s 467, and still far above our summer rates.

POSITIVE TEST RATE:  Solano’s 7-day average percent positivity rate was only 5.8% today, down from Wednesday’s 6.2%.  COMPARE: today’s California rate is 2.1% and today’s U.S. rate is 6.3%.  [Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Center]

HOSPITALIZATIONS:

CURRENT hospitalizations were up today from 50 to 52 persons, and still in the range we saw during the winter surge.

ICU Bed Availability is down sharply today, from 29% to an alarming 12%, barely above the red warning zone.  We saw rates this low once in September and twice in August – and before that, not since January.  Again, we are in the worrisome range we saw during the winter surge.

Ventilator Availability is up slightly today from 49% to 51%, but still in the range of last winter’s surge.

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.  The County updated its Hospitalizations charts today.  See below.  The differing race/ethnicity numbers indicate a number of persons whose race/ethnicity was not given or recorded.

FACE MASKS… Required for all in Benicia and Vallejo

Benicia City Council passed a citywide indoors mask mandate that went into effect on August 24 and includes everyone 4 years old and up when indoors in public places, even those of us who are vaccinated.  Benicia was joined by Vallejo 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.  Today’s Bay Area news put Solano in a sad light: all other counties’ health officers issued a 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.

Cases by City on Friday, October 8:
    • Benicia added 7 new cases today, a total of 1,467 cases since the outbreak began.  Benicia has seen 28 new cases over the last 7 days, continuing (just barely) in the CDC’s definition of HIGH community transmission (defined as 28 or more cases, based on Benicia population – SEE CHART BELOW).  [Note that Solano County is at a level of HIGH transmission, and Solano’s 6 other cities are likely also individually experiencing high or substantial transmission.]

    • Dixon added 6 new cases today, total of 2,499 cases.
    • Fairfield added 29 new cases today, total of 12,023 cases.
    • Rio Vista added 6 new cases today, total of 582 cases.
    • Suisun City added 6 new cases today, total of 3,176 cases.
    • Vacaville added 36 new cases today, a total of 11,785 cases.
    • Vallejo added 34 new cases today, a total of 13,157 cases.
    • Unincorporated added 0 new cases today, a total of 139 cases (population figures not available).

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