Tag Archives: Solano County Health Officer Bela Matyas

Coronavirus, Covid 19, COVID-19 tier assignments, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Officer Bela Matyas

Solano County: winter surge worse than we thought – as many as 35 more COVID deaths than previously reported

By Roger Straw, Wednesday, May 19, 2021

Solano County reports 60 new infections today!  Stay safe, and remember: People with mild COVID can have long-term health problems

Solano County COVID report on Wednesday, May 19.
[Source: see far below.  See also my ARCHIVE spreadsheet of daily Solano COVID updates.]
Solano County COVID-19 Dashboard – SUMMARY:

Solano County reported 60 new COVID cases today.  Reports are that our red-tier Solano County will not be joining all other Bay Area counties opening in less restrictive tiers anytime soon.  We saw 1,288 new cases in April, an average of 43 per day.  In the first 19 days of May, Solano reported 609 new cases, an average of 32 per day (up from an average of 30 yesterday).  

ADJUSTING OUR DEATH COUNT – The County reported no new deaths today.  However, Solano County Public Health Officer Dr. Bela Matyas disclosed to the Fairfield Daily Republic that this week’s 13 newly reported deaths occurred in January and February, with more such “catch-up” reports to come.  “Matyas said he expects the number [of deaths] to rise another 20 to 25 as patient records are reviewed.”  Dr. Matyas has in the past performed “occasional updates” on previously unreported hospitalizations.  Now we must add COVID deaths to that practice, understanding that our winter surge was even worse than we thought.  Our hearts go out belatedly to all of these, and their families and friends.

We learned of no new hospitalizations today.  Solano’s Active cases are now at 200.  Our percent positivity rate rose today from yesterday’s 5.8% to 6.5%.

>> The virus is still active here.  Stay safe, get vaccinated, wear a mask and social distance!  We will get through this together.

Cases by City on Wednesday, May 19:

  • Benicia added 2 new cases today, total of 986 cases since the outbreak began.
  • Dixon added 1 new case today, total of 1,909 cases.
  • Fairfield added 20 new cases today, total of 9,005 cases.
  • Rio Vista added 2 new cases today, total of 372 cases.
  • Suisun City added 6 new cases today, total of 2,270 cases.
  • Vacaville added 15 new cases today, total of 8,632 cases.
  • Vallejo added 14 new cases today, total of 9,809 cases.
  • Unincorporated areas remained steady today, total of 103 cases.

COMPARE: Screenshots from Solano County COVID Dashboard on Tuesday, May 18:

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.

Sources
Coronavirus, Covid 19, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Officer Bela Matyas, Vaccine

Solano County discloses previously unreported COVID deaths – 13 in two days

By Roger Straw, Tuesday, May 18, 2021

Solano reports 15 new cases today, and 6 new deaths!  Stay safe, and remember: People with mild COVID can have long-term health problems

Solano County COVID report on Tuesday, May 18.
[Source: see far below.  See also my ARCHIVE spreadsheet of daily Solano COVID updates.]
Solano County COVID-19 Dashboard – SUMMARY:

Solano County reported 15 new COVID cases today.  Reports are that our red-tier Solano County will not be joining all other Bay Area counties opening in less restrictive tiers anytime soon.  We saw 1,288 new cases in April, an average of 43 per day.  In the first 18 days of May, Solano reported 549 new cases, an average of 30 per day.  

The County reported 6 NEW DEATHS today, one young adult age 18-49 and 5 persons over 65 years of age.  According to the Fairfield Daily Republic, yesterday’s 7 newly reported deaths occurred in January and February, with more such reports to come this week.  No doubt this includes most if not all of today’s 6 new deaths.  Solano County Public Health Officer Dr. Bela Matyas has in the past performed “occasional updates” on previously unreported hospitalizations.  Now we can add deaths to that practice.  Our hearts go out to all of these, and their families and friends. 

We learned of no new hospitalizations today.  Our percent positivity rate remained steady today at 5.8%.

>> The virus is still active here.  Stay safe, get vaccinated, wear a mask and social distance!  We will get through this together.

Cases by City on Tuesday, May 18:

  • Benicia remained steady today, total of 984 cases since the outbreak began.
  • Dixon added 4 new cases today, total of 1,908 cases.
  • Fairfield added only 4 new cases today, total of 8,985 cases.
  • Rio Vista remained steady today, total of 370 cases.
  • Suisun City remained steady today, total of 2,264 cases.
  • Vacaville added only 2 new cases today, total of 8,617 cases.
  • Vallejo added only 5 new cases today, total of 9,795 cases.
  • Unincorporated areas remained steady today, total of 103 cases.

COMPARE: Screenshots from Solano County COVID Dashboard on Monday, May 17:

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.

Sources
Benicia CA, Coronavirus, COVID-19 tier assignments, Fairfield CA, Re-opening, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Officer Bela Matyas, Vacaville CA, Vallejo CA

SF Chronicle: Just one Bay Area county is still stuck in the red tier. Here’s what’s holding it back

Solano County case rates and vaccination rates lagging behind other Bay Area counties

Solano County is the only Bay Area county still left in the red tier, while the rest of the Bay Area is in the less restrictive orange and yellow tiers. California Department of Public Health
San Francisco Chronicle, May 6, 2021, by Kellie Hwang

In recent months, coronavirus case rates have plummeted in much of the Bay Area. Most of the region’s counties are now in California’s “moderate” orange reopening tier, which allows for loosened restrictions, and San Francisco moved to the least restrictive yellow tier on Tuesday.

But Solano County, which has continued to struggle with higher case rates than the rest of the Bay Area, is still stuck in the red tier — the second-most-restrictive in the four-tier system.

According to the latest data from the state for the week ending April 24, Solano reported 8.8 new daily coronavirus cases per 100,000 people, and an adjusted case rate of 8.3, which takes into account a county’s testing efforts.

The metrics that the state considers for tier assignment, though, are fairly low, with a positive test rate of 2.7% and a health equity positive test rate of 2.1%. From April 28 to May 4, the average daily case rate for the county was 10 per 100,000, while the Bay Area’s overall average daily case rate was 5.

Dr. Bela Matyas, health officer for the county, said officials know the main reason for the persistently higher case rates.

“People who are not vaccinated are getting together with friends and family and not social distancing,” he said. “It’s been a problem since the very beginning.”

He said the stubborn case rates over the past couple of months can be attributed to younger individuals. The county’s COVID-19 dashboard shows 55% of cases in the 18 to 49 age group, 21% in residents 50 to 64, and 12% in individuals 65 and older. The 18 to 49 age group also has a lower vaccination rate, with 46% having received at least one dose compared to 68% in people 50 to 64 and 79% in residents 65 to 74.

“They are engaging in activities on the presumption that the pandemic is under control or behind us,” Matyas said.

Part of it could be frustration with the pandemic, and part of it could be the “sense they will not have a bad outcome” if they become infected, he said.

Matyas added that it’s hard to compare Solano County to much of the Bay Area when it comes to the pandemic. He called it a “bridge community between the two different cultures” of the Bay Area and the Central Valley.

Vaccination rates are lower than most other Bay Area counties, and vaccine hesitancy is also an issue.

“Very liberal counties have very high rates of vaccination, and traditionally conservative counties have low rates of vaccination,” he said. “We’re in the middle, a blend of the two.”

Matyas said vaccination rates tend to be higher in the southern part of the county that includes Vallejo (61.5% with at least one dose) and Benicia (72.3%), and becomes more moderate and conservative moving north to Fairfield (57.5%) and Vacaville (53.1%).

According to Solano County’s vaccine dashboard, 58% of residents 16 and older have received at least one vaccine dose, while 39% are fully vaccinated. Compare that to neighboring Napa County, where 66% of residents have received at least one vaccine dose, and 47% are fully vaccinated, or Marin County, which has the Bay Area’s highest vaccination rates with 83% having received at least one dose, and 64% fully vaccinated.

“Attendance at clinics is way down” in Solano, Matyas said. “To be honest, there are people in Solano County who don’t want it, who are choosing not to be vaccinated with full knowledge of their decision.”

So will Solano be able to make it to the orange tier? Matyas said the county has been trying, and has consistently provided outreach and education.

“We’ve never been in orange, and have been in the red and purple tiers the whole time,” Matyas said. “I would love to get to the orange because businesses, services and activities are clearly being limited in the red.”

Matyas said officials have achieved the goal of providing the vaccine to those who want it, and have mostly minimized the highest risk in the community, vaccinating nearly 80% of residents 65 and older so far.

At this point, Matyas said the primary goals for the county have shifted to ensuring access to vaccines for anyone who has had trouble receiving them, and helping those who are hesitant get past their hesitancy.

Coronavirus, Covid 19, COVID-19 tier assignments, Re-opening, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Officer Bela Matyas

Dr. Matyas: ‘The numbers remain too high’

As state’s major cities progress, Solano County wallows in red tier with COVID

Dr. Bela Matyas, Public Health Officer, Solano County Health and Social Services. (File photo-Joel Rosenbaum — The Reporter)

Vallejo Times-Herald, by Richard Freedman, May 6, 2021

It’s said that “close” is good in horseshoes and hand grenades. Not so good if a county is stuck in a restrictive COVID-19 tier.

Enter Solano County, seemingly cemented to the “red tier” while every other county in the Bay Area is either orange or, in the case of San Francisco, the much less-restrictive yellow tier.

Solano County is inching ever so close, but again, it matters not unless the mandatory limit of positive COVID-19 cases is achieved.

Daily case counts have been averaging about 35 to 45 for several weeks, and they need to get below 27, according to Dr. Bela Matyas, Health Officer for Solano County Public Health.

Beverly Mcgain: Break the COVID vaccine patent
“Our daily case numbers remain too high on average for us to be able to move to the orange tier. Given that we are in the red tier this week, it would be at least two weeks before we could move down,” Matyas added.

Seven of the state’s 58 counties — including Los Angeles County, the one-time epicenter of rampant COVID-19 cases — are now in the so-called yellow tier, which is the final stage of a phased reopening plan. The five other counties are all remote areas of Northern California.

“The assignment to a tier is based not on total numbers but on the rate of numbers, which takes into account the large differences in county sizes,” Matyas continued. “That said, L.A. County is seeing less transmission of disease on a per-person basis than we are. I think it has to do largely with different behaviors being practiced in the two counties — more instances of family/social gatherings without social distancing here in Solano than in L.A.”

A longtime proponent of masking up and social distancing pre-COVID to prevent the seasonal flu and common cold, Matyas believes “the best path is to increase community vaccination levels, which will both protect the vaccinated individuals themselves and reduce the ability of the virus to circulate in the community. Obviously, adhering to social distancing recommendations is essential as well.”

The tier system governs crowd sizes — with and without proof of vaccination — allowed at both indoor and outdoor venue events, such as sporting events and live performances.

Whatever tier Solano County reaches is presumably moot in four weeks, as the governor declared that California re-open June 15.

“It doesn’t matter what tier we are in on that date. Solano County will re-open with the rest of the state,” Matyas said.

Though the economy would essentially fully re-open, mask mandates would remain in place.

Close to 13 million Californians are now fully vaccinated with either one shot of the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine or two shots of either Pfizer or Moderna. More than 6.1 million others are partially vaccinated with a first dose of Pfizer or Moderna, according to the California Department of Public Health.

The reduced demand eliminates the need for the huge sites like the Solano County Fairgrounds, notes Benjamin Gammon, Emergency Medical Services Coordinator for Solano County.

Gammon said by phone Thursday that “the clinics are not filling up” and he doesn’t see a return to the fairgrounds “unless Pfizer goes 12 (years old) and up.”

Gammon said that 2,500 doses were available at a recent clinic at Vacaville High School and 1,300 doses were administered.

Again, he said, “we’re just not seeing the push anymore.”

The next scheduled Vallejo mass vaccination availability is next Thursday, 2 to 7 p.m., at the Filipino Community Center, 611 Amador St. Ages 18 and older are eligible. Vaccinations are no-cost and available regardless of health insurance or immigration status. Either the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine or the first of the two-dose Moderna vaccine (with a June 6 return for a second dose) are available.

For more information or to schedule an appointment, visit facebook.com/filipinocommunityofsolanocounty/