Monday, August 30: Solano reports 677 new infections, 4 deaths, soaring community transmission levels.
Solano County COVID dashboard SUMMARY:
[Sources: see below.]
DEATHS: 4 new deaths were reported today, two of us age 50-64 and two 65+. Today’s deaths included an Asian person, a Latinx person and two White persons. Total Solano deaths over the course of the pandemic rose to 270.
CASES: The County reported a whopping 677 new COVID cases over the weekend, 325 per day, our highest since January 25.
Solano has seen 1,475 new cases over the last 7 days, well over the CDC’s level for “High Community Transmission”. 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. Today, Solano County’s 1,475 cases is nearly triple the CDC’s High rate of transmission!
Case numbers also show a startling increase in the percentage of new cases among young persons age 0-17, increasing another tenth of a percent to a new high of 13.5% of total cases, the third consecutive 0.1% jump. That doesn’t sound like much until you consider that the percentage of youth cases increased very, very slowly over the course of the pandemic, starting below 6%, and only gradually reaching 12% in mid-April of 2021. The percent of youth has jumped a full half-percent in the last 2 weeks.
Cases-Per-Day Trend (All Age Groups): We are experiencing a dramatic “summer surge” now. Cases-per-day were trending downward in the Spring, but rose rapidly in July and are skyrocketing here in August:
ACTIVE CASES: Solano’s 1,097 ACTIVE cases is up slightly from Friday’s 1,089, alarmingly up from 212 on July 2, and in the range we experienced during the deadly surge last winter.
Hospitalizations
CURRENT hospitalizations were up slightly today from 142 to 143 persons, and still higher than any time since the winter surge.
ICU Bed Availability was still shockingly low today at only 13% of ICU beds available, in the yellow danger zone and nearing red. This was up only slightly from Friday’s 11%. We’ve not seen rates this low since January 2021.
Ventilator Availability was up slightly today from 57% to 60%, and also continuing in the range we saw last winter.
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 did not update its Hospitalizations charts today. The Age Group chart shows a total of 2,086 persons hospitalized since the beginning of the outbreak. The Hospitalizations by Race / Ethnicity chart was also not updated today, and shows a total of 1,954 persons hospitalized since the beginning of the outbreak. Interestingly, the total doesn’t square with the total by age groups.
Face Coverings… Good News in Benicia
GOOD NEWS! Last week, Benicia City Council passed a citywide indoors mask mandate. The Council heard opposition from Dr. Bela Matyas, and support from Dr. Bonnie Hamilton. The public spoke almost entirely in favor of a mandate and included a number of medical professionals. Councilmembers debated on various finer points, and passed the resolution on a 5-0 vote. The mandate went into effect immediately. Everyone 4 years old and up must now wear a mask indoors in public places, even those of us who are vaccinated. The mask resolution, press release, and a flyer now appear on the City website. For those interested in reviewing the Benicia City Council procedings of August 24, the video is posted on the City website, at benicia.granicus.com/player/clip/3528?view_id=1…. The mask mandate discussion begins around minute 23.
Benicia is the first Solano city to take action despite the County’s lack of strong guidance on masks. In the Bay Area, Solano County REMAINS the only holdout against even RECOMMENDING masks in public indoors spaces. Hopefully, Dr. Matyas will learn from Benicia, and make the necessary difficult decisions, but all reports are that he intends not to do so.
Please mask indoors in public places now, and maybe even indoors in crowded gatherings at home with vaccinated family and friends! PLEASE talk to anyone you know who isn’t vaccinated. This thing ain’t over yet!
Cases by City on Monday, August 30:
- Benicia added 36 new cases today, a total of 1,276 cases since the outbreak began, 4.6% of its population of 27,570. Benicia is far and above over the CDC’s HIGH community transmission level with 60 (!) new cases in the last 7 days. (14 cases over the last 7 days = “Substantial” and 28 cases = “High”.)
- Dixon added 39 new cases today, total of 2,262 cases, 11.4% of its population of 19,794.
- Fairfield added 166 new cases today, total of 10,956 cases, 9.4% of its population of 117,149.
- Rio Vista added 9 new cases today, total of 505 cases, 5.4% of its population of 9,416.
- Suisun City added 55 new cases today, total of 2,870 cases, 9.7% of its population of 29,447.
- Vacaville added 185 new cases today, a total of 10,570 cases, 10.7% its of population of 98,807.
- Vallejo added 182 new cases today, a total of 11,910 cases, 10.0% of its population of 119,544.
- Unincorporated added 5 new case today, a total of 128 cases (population figures not available).
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