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

Solano issues 5-day COVID update, showing 1 new death and 179 new infections

NOTE: The information below is not the latest.  CLICK HERE for today’s latest information.
By Roger Straw, Monday, November 29, 2021
[See also New York Times, Coronavirus: What we know about Omicron.]

Monday, November 29: Solano County reports
1 new death and 179 new infections. Solano remains in SUBSTANTIAL rate of transmission.  Benicia also remains in SUBSTANTIAL transmission.

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

DEATHS: Solano reported 1 new death today.  The County reported 27 COVID deaths in September, 18 in October, and 11 so far in November.  A total of 326 Solano residents have died of COVID or COVID-related causes over the course of the pandemic.

CASES: The County reported 179 new COVID cases over the past 5 days.  CASES BY AGE GROUP: 35 of these 179 cases (20%) were youth and children under 18.  93 were age 18-49, 35 were age 50-64, and 16 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 age 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 267 new cases (up from 251 on last 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 304 ACTIVE cases is down from last Friday’s 339, but still far above our summer rates.

CASES BY CITY on Monday, November 29:

  • Benicia added 12 new cases today, a total of 1,593 cases since the outbreak began, and 20 cases over the last 7 days.  This keeps Benicia in the SUBSTANTIAL transmission rate. a second Solano report showing Benicia’s over the MODERATE transmission – 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 5 new cases today, total of 2,585 cases.
  • Fairfield added 46 new cases today, total of 12,551 cases.
  • Rio Vista reported 3 new cases today, total of 633 cases.
  • Suisun City added 12 new cases today, total of 3,318 cases.
  • Vacaville added 43 new cases today, a total of 12,367 cases.
  • Vallejo added 58 new cases today, a total of 13,687 cases.
  • Unincorporated added 0 new cases today, a total of 145 cases.

POSITIVE TEST RATE:  Solano’s 7-day percent positivity rate was 6.5% today, up from last Friday’s 4.4%.  COMPARE: Today’s California rate is 1.4%.  [Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Center]  Today’s U.S. rate is 7.67%. [Source: CDC COVID Data Tracker.] 

HOSPITALIZATIONS:

CURRENT hospitalizations were down today from 24 to 18 persons, but 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 updated its age and race hospitalizations charts today.  The age chart shows 24 previously unreported hospitalizations, one youth age 0-17,  7 age 18-49, 7 age 50-64, and 9 age 65+.  Solano hospitals reported a new total of 3,041 COVID patients since the beginning of the outbreak.  (Data on age is more reliable than that on race/ethnicity.)

ICU Bed Availability is 33% today, down from 37% on last Friday, in the County’s GREEN zone, but we remain in the worrisome range we saw during last winter’s surge.

Ventilator Availability today rose today from 73% to 82%.

MASK MANDATE
Benicia’s mask mandate will remain in effect, at least through December 7.  See
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