The Centers for Disease Control is reversing course and is now recommending that both vaccinated and unvaccinated people wear masks indoors, specially in parts of the country where COVID-19 cases are on the rise.
In the Bay Area, Solano County has been seeing 100 COVID-19 cases a day, which is more than double from last week. However, the county health officer does not think masking up indoors.
Dr. Bela Matyas, Solano County’s health officer, said the CDC’s recommendation is misguided.
“The transmission that’s occurring in people’s homes, backyards, camping,” he said, “it’s not an environment where masking recommendations are going to apply.”
“Nothing has changed with respect to the science to warrant the CDC’s change in its recommendation,” he said.
Most people in Solano County said they will follow the CDC’s guidance despite the county not echoing the recommendation.
“I am fine wearing a mask,” Benicia resident Linda Martino said. “I want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.”
The owner of Art Centric in Benicia even put up her “masks required” sign up again.
“Now that we’re seeing cases rise, I want to protect myself as well as my customers,” said Aline Karpoyan.
“I’d like to be through with this,” said resident Laura Harper.
“Everybody get vaccinated, get past the masks and past the COVID thing all together.”
CDC recommends entire Bay Area issue indoor mask mandate
SFGate, by Eric Ting, July 27, 2021
The CDC’s map of California counties by COVID-19 transmission rates. Masks are recommended in red and orange counties. (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) – Click here (or on the image) to go to interactive CDC map.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revised its masking guidance Tuesday to advise that all individuals — including vaccinated ones — wear masks indoors in areas with “high” and “substantial” COVID-19 transmission.
According to the CDC’s map, four Bay Area counties — San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa and Solano — are classified as areas of “high” transmission and the other five — Santa Clara, San Mateo, Marin, Sonoma, Napa — are classified as areas of “substantial” transmission. Masking is currently recommended but not required in every Bay Area county except Solano.
Given how Bay Area counties have previously handled the pandemic, it seems highly likely the region will turn their recommendations into mandates following the updated CDC guidance. A mask mandate is currently in effect in Los Angeles County.
Across California, most counties fall into the “high” or “substantial” categories.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday the state would issue updated statewide guidance sometime after the CDC guidance was released.
The CDC said the change in guidance is based on new evidence showing that while fully vaccinated individuals are protected against severe disease from the delta variant, they can transmit it to unvaccinated individuals more easily than other strains of the virus.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said that when earlier strains of the virus were dominant, infected vaccinated people were found to have low levels of virus in their nose and throats and were deemed unlikely to spread the virus. That has changed with the delta variant, where Walensky said the level of virus in infected vaccinated people is “indistinguishable” from the level of virus in infected unvaccinated people.
Solano County reported no new deathstoday. The County total is now 245 deaths since the pandemic began. But the County reported 289 new COVID cases over the weekend, 96 per day! Solano is clearly experiencing a “summer surge” in cases.
TREND: Cases-per-day dramatically up in July
Cases-per-day were trending downward in recent months, but are now rising sharply, especially over the last week:
Solano’s 451ACTIVE cases is down from Friday’s remarkable high of 647, but still higher than anything since February 19, 2021. Active cases have risen alarmingly in just two weeks, up from 289 cases on July 12.
Test Rate INCREDIBLY HIGH – compare with US & CA
Our 7-day average percent positivity rate was up alarmingly again today from a shocking 14.9% on Friday to an even more surprising 16.8% today, the County’s highest rate since January 29, 2021. We would be decidedly back in the PURPLE TIER with rates this high.COMPARE: The US 7-day % positive rate today is at 5.3%, and the California rate is 3.8%.[Source: Johns Hopkins]
Hospitalizations – fewer ICU Beds and Ventilators available
CURRENT hospitalizations jumped today from 33 to 45 persons CURRENTLY hospitalized with COVID. ICU beds available fell dramatically today from 50% to only 32%. And the County reported fewer ventilators available today, down from 80 to 69. These numbers confirm the spike in hospitalizations, see below…
The County updates the intake/discharge total of CURRENTLY hospitalized cases with every report, but never reports on the cumulative total of hospitalized COVID patients 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 which was not updated today, and now shows a total of 1,309 persons hospitalized since the beginning of the outbreak, in the following age groups:
Age Group
Hospitalizations
% of Total
0-17
27
2%
18-49
327
25%
50-64
342
26%
65+
613
47%
TOTAL
1,309
100%
Hospitalizations are also recorded on the County’s demographic chart labeled “Hospitalizations by Race / Ethnicity.” The chart was not updated today. Here are the current numbers. Interestingly, the total doesn’t square with totals by age groups.
Race / Ethnicity
Hospitalizations
% of Total
Asians
184
15%
Black / African American
200
16%
Hispanic / Latinx
327
27%
White
406
34%
Multirace / Others
86
7%
TOTAL
1,203
99%
SUMMER SURGE – Masks, Social Distancing & Vaccination
COVID is clearly circulating again and surging in Solano County! Some California counties are returning to mandatory masks for all in crowded places, and today the State of California issued a policy for state employees and health care workers, requiring them to either get vaccinated or be tested weekly for the virus. In the Bay Area, Solano County is the only holdout against even RECOMMENDING masks in public indoors spaces. My personal plan is to mask indoors in public even though I’m vaccinated, and I’d recommend it for you, too. This thing ain’t over yet!
Cases by City on Monday, July 26:
Beniciaadded 8 new cases today, a total of 1,092 cases since the outbreak began, 4.0% of its population of 27,570.
Dixon added 7 new case today, total of 1,997 cases, 10.1% of its population of 19,794.
Fairfield added 74 new cases today, total of 9,560 cases, 8.2% of its population of 117,149.
Rio Vista added 4 new cases today, total of 421 cases, 4.5% of its population of 9,416.
Suisun Cityadded 38 new cases today, total of 2,487 cases, 8.4% of its population of 29,447.
Vacaville added 82 new cases today, a total of 9,341 cases, 9.5% its of population of 98,807.
Vallejoadded 76 new cases today, a total of 10,476 cases, 8.8% of its population of 119,544.
Unincorporated remained steady today, a total of 108 cases (population figures not available).
COMPARE: From the most recent report on Solano County’s COVID Dashboard, Friday, July 23:
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.
[BenIndy Editor: Here in Solano County, our Public Health Department scaled back on virus reporting a month ago, on June 23. Solano now updates its COVID-19 Dashboard only on Mon., Wed. and Fri.. Previously, the dashboard was updated 5 days a week M-F. – R.S.]
In this Jan. 11, 2021 file photo, Nebraska Gov. Pete Rickets points to vaccination statistics during a news conference in Lincoln, Neb. Several states scaled back their reporting on COVID-19 in July 2021, just as cases across the country tripled with the delta variant of the virus spreading quickly among the unvaccinated. The shift to weekly instead of daily reporting in Florida, Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota was also accompanied by less detail about the virus in Florida and Nebraska, and some officials described the move as part of a return to normal. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)Vallejo Times-Herald, By Josh Funk, The Associated Press, July 25, 2021
OMAHA,NEB.>> Several states scaled back their reporting of COVID-19 statistics this month just as cases across the country started to skyrocket, depriving the public of real-time information on outbreaks, cases, hospitalizations and deaths in their communities.
The shift to weekly instead of daily reporting in Florida, Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota marked a notable shift during a pandemic in which coronavirus dashboards have become a staple for Americans closely tracking case counts and trends to navigate a crisis that has killed more than 600,000 people in the U.S.
In Nebraska, the state actually stopped reporting on the virus altogether for two weeks after Gov. Pete Ricketts declared an end to the official virus emergency, forcing news reporters to file public records requests or turn to national websites that track state data to learn about COVID statistics. The state backtracked two weeks later and came up with a weekly site that provides some basic numbers.
Other governments have gone the other direction and released more information, with Washington, D.C., this week adding a dashboard on breakthrough cases to show the number of residents who contracted the virus after getting vaccines. Many states have recently gone to reporting virus numbers only on weekdays.
When Florida changed the frequency of its virus reporting earlier this month, officials said it made sense given the decreasing number of cases and the increasing number of people being vaccinated.
Cases started soaring soon after, and Florida earlier this week made up up one-fifth of the country’s new coronavirus infections. As a result, Florida’s weekly releases — typically done on Friday afternoons — have consequences for the country’s understanding of the current summer surge, with no statewide COVID stats coming out of the virus hotspot for six days a week.
In Florida’s last two weekly reports, the number of new cases shot up from 23,000 to 45,000 and then 73,000 on Friday, an average of more than 10,000 day. Hospitals are starting to run out of space in parts of the state. With cases rising, Democrats and other critics have urged state officials and Gov. Ron DeSantis to resume daily outbreak updates.
“There was absolutely no reason to eliminate the daily updates beyond an effort to pretend like there are no updates,” said state Rep. Anna Eskamani, a Democrat from the Orlando area.
The trend of reducing data reporting has alarmed infectious disease specialists who believe that more information is better during a pandemic. People have come to rely on state virus dashboards to help make decisions about whether to attend large gatherings or wear masks in public, and understanding the level of risk in the community affects how people respond to virus restrictions and calls to get vaccinated.
“We know that showing the data to others actually is important because the actions that businesses take, the actions that schools take, the actions that civic leaders take, the actions that community leaders take, the actions that each of us individually take are all influenced by our perception of what the risk is out there,” said Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, who leads the department of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco.
Associated Press Writer Bobby Caina Calvan contributed to this report.
You must be logged in to post a comment.