#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 Public Health data on Feb. 9: A new surge? Or just playing catch-up?

NOTE: The information below is not the latest.  TAP HERE for today’s latest information.

By Roger Straw, Wednesday, February 9, 2022

Solano County reported 2,794 new infections over the last two days!  Solano County and Benicia continue to experience an extremely high transmission rate!

Solano Public Health COVID dashboard, Wednesday, February 9, 2022:

DEATHS:  Solano reported no new deaths in today’s report.  Trending: Seven new deaths reported so far in February, all over 65 years of age.  The County has seen increasing COVID-related deaths each month since last November, rising to 30 in January.  (Compare with last winter: 24 deaths in January 2021, 42 in February and 33 in March.)  A total of 388 Solano residents have now died of COVID or COVID-related causes over the course of the pandemic.

CASES BY AGE GROUP: My color-coded chart (below) shows a record over TIME.  It shows an alarming steady increase among youth and children in Solano County.  The chart displays quarterly and recent snapshots in time by age group, each as a percentage of total cases since the outbreak began.  Increases are in red and decreases are in green as reported by Solano County.  Note the continuing increase among children & 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 17.4% as of today.  (From the CDC covid-data-tracker.)

COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION RATE: Solano is experiencing an EXTREMELY HIGH transmission rate, with a total of 4,010 new cases over the last 7 days, a big jump from 1,763 at last report, and way up from around 500 at Christmastime.  CDC FORMULA: Based on Solano County’s population, 450 or more cases in 7 days places Solano in the CDC’s population-based definition of a HIGH transmission rate.  We would need to drop below 225 cases in 7 days to rate as having only MODERATE community transmission.

ACTIVE CASES: Solano’s 2,517 ACTIVE cases today is up from 2,308 at last report, and well over the 2,000 active cases we had at the New Year and only 329 on December 1.

CASES BY CITY – Wednesday, February 9, 2022:

  • BENICIA added 58 new cases today, a total of 2,922 cases since the outbreak began.  TRANSMISSION RATE: Benicia has seen 100 new infections in the last 7 days, far above the CDC’s HIGH rate of community transmission. For a city with Benicia’s population, anything over 27 cases in 7 days is considered HIGH TRANSMISSION. (See chart below.)  MASKS: >> At next week’s Benicia City Council meeting, (Tues., Feb. 15), Council will consider whether and how to continue the citywide face mask mandate, in light of the State of California’s announcement that it will lift the statewide mandate on Feb. 16. >>Note that the Benicia City Council is considering adding multiple metrics rather than the single metric of the CDC’s 7-day case count to determine when it is safe to lift certain COVID restrictions (see Benicia Chooses to Continue Mask Mandate, 1/19/22).  Note above that Solano County is currently also experiencing EXTREMELY HIGH transmission.

  • Dixon added 62 new cases today, total of 4,020 cases.
  • Fairfield added 1,247(!) new cases today, total of 20,349 cases.
  • Rio Vista added 27 new cases today, total of 1,040 cases.
  • Suisun City added 302(!) new cases today, total of 5,379 cases.
  • Vacaville added 443 new cases today, a total of 18,706 cases.
  • Vallejo added 653 new cases today, a total of 24,051 cases.
  • Unincorporated added 2 new cases today, a total of 188 cases.

TEST RATE:  Solano County’s 7-Day Percent Positive Test Rate shot up after Christmas and has continued through today’s very high 19%, (although today’s report shows a drop from 21% at last report.)  SOLANO DOES NOT COMPARE FAVORABLY: The California 7-day % positive rate fell to 6.7% today.  [Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Center]  The U.S. 7-day % positive rate also fell today to 13.63% from 15.85% at last report. [Source: CDC COVID Data Tracker.] 

HOSPITALIZATIONS:

CURRENT hospitalizations fell today from 87 to 80 persons.  Currently hospitalized persons in Solano peaked higher than ever before on Jan 22, at 207 persons in hospital. (The County’s previous high was 176 on Jan 7, 2021.)

TOTAL hospitalizations – Solano Public Health updated its age and race hospitalizations charts today, adding 1 Asian person, age 65+.  Our total since the beginning of the outbreak is now 3,512 hospitalizations.

ICU Bed Availability in Solano County remained steady today at 24% available, still in the Yellow danger zone.

Ventilator Availability  fell dramatically today from 64% to 51% available. 

HOW DOES TODAY’S REPORT COMPARE?  See recent reports and others going back to April 20, 2020 in 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.

See also my BENINDY ARCHIVE of daily Solano COVID updates (an excel spreadsheet).  I have also archived the hundreds of full CORONAVIRUS REPORTS posted here almost daily on the Benicia Independent since April 2020.

RETURN TO TOP