Monday, November 8: Solano County reports 99 new infections over the weekend, remains in SUBSTANTIAL rate of transmission. Solano Public Health updated hospitalization details (age and race), adding 152 new hospitalizations since October 15, pandemic total nearing 3,000.
Solano County COVID dashboard SUMMARY:
[Sources: see below.]
DEATHS: Solano reported no new COVID-related deaths today. The County reported 27 COVID deaths in September, 18 in October, and good news: NONE since October 18. Bad news: a total of 315 Solano residents have died of COVID or COVID-related causes over the course of the pandemic.
CASES: The County reported 99 new COVID cases over the weekend. AGES: 26 of these 99 cases were youth and children under 18. 51 were age 18-49, 17 were age 50-64, and only 5 were 65+. Thankfully, Friday’s uptick in the number of seniors (8.5 per day) was very shortlived.
COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION RATE: Over the last 7 days, Solano has seen SUBSTANTIAL community transmission, with 258 new cases (down slightly from 261 on 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 332 ACTIVE cases is down substantially from Friday’s 394, but still far above our summer rates.
CASES BY CITY on Monday, November 8:
- Benicia added 3 new cases today, a total of 1,550 cases since the outbreak began. Benicia remained in the MODERATE range of community transmission with ONLY 9 new cases over the last 7 days. This is the first time Benicia has seen MODERATE 7-day spread for 2 consecutive Solano updates since July 9. (MODERATE is defined as less than 14 cases, based on Benicia population – SEE CHART BELOW). Benicia will need to maintain fewer than 14 new cases per 7 days for 30 consecutive days before relaxing the mask mandate. [Note above that Solano County is currently experiencing SUBSTANTIAL transmission.
- Dixon added 3 new cases today, total of 2,559 cases.
- Fairfield added 37 new cases today, total of 12,363 cases.
- Rio Vista reported 2 new cases today, total of 616 cases.
- Suisun City added 2 new cases today, total of 3,256 cases.
- Vacaville added 24 new cases today, a total of 12,128 cases.
- Vallejo added 28 new cases today, a total of 13,470 cases.
- Unincorporated added 0 new cases today, a total of 140 cases.
POSITIVE TEST RATE: Solano’s 7-day percent positivity rate was 4.5% today, down from Friday’s 4.8%. COMPARE: Today’s California rate is 1.9%. [Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Center] Today’s U.S. rate is 5.55%. [Source: CDC COVID Data Tracker.]
HOSPITALIZATIONS:
CURRENT hospitalizations were down today from 35 to 34 persons, but still far 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 for the first time since October 15. Total COVID hospitalizations in Solano increased by 152 in the past 25 days, just over 6 new hospitalizations every day. Solano hospitals have admitted a TOTAL of 2,990 COVID patients since the beginning of the outbreak. (Data on age is more reliable than that on race/ethnicity.)
ICU Bed Availability is 35% today, up from 30% on Friday, moving into the GREEN zone. We remain in the worrisome range we saw during last winter’s surge.
Ventilator Availability today rose from 67% to 69%.
ALERT! Benicia’s mask mandate may be weakened by City Council on Nov 16
On Tuesday, October 19, Benicia City Council reviewed our CDC-defined 7-day community transmission rate for September-October, which has yet to dip below the SUBSTANTIAL level. Because of this poor data and according to City Resolution 21-88, Council left in place Benicia’s citywide indoors mask mandate for now. The mandate 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. On Oct. 19, Councilmember Largaespada convinced other Councilmembers and staff to bring consideration of amending the mandate back to Council on November 16. Largaespada suggested amendments that could weaken the mandate with various exceptions, possibly including no indoor mask requirements in restaurants, bars and gyms. Largaespada would “Limit the mask mandate to the most essential businesses in town.” He added that groceries, pharmacies, banks and City Hall might be considered essential.
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. Recent 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
- Solano County Coronavirus Dashboard (on the County website).
- See also my ARCHIVE of daily Solano COVID updates (an excel spreadsheet). I have posted full CORONAVIRUS REPORTS almost daily here on the Benicia Independent.
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