January 12, 2022 SUMMARY: Solano County recorded 5,205 new infections in 2 days! 2 new COVID-related deaths and 63 previously undisclosed hospitalizations.  Solano & Benicia in EXTREME HIGH rate of transmission.  Nearly 1,000 children and young teens test positive.

Solano Public Health COVID dashboard, Wednesday, January 12:

DEATHS: Solano reported 2 new deaths today, one age 18-49 and one 65+, both Black.  Trending: The County reported 27 COVID deaths in September, 18 in October, 14 in November, 22 in December, and 12 already in January (48 of us have died over 59 days since the uptick beginning on November 15).  A total of 363 Solano residents have now died of COVID or COVID-related causes over the course of the pandemic.

CASES BY AGE GROUP: The County reported 5,205 new COVID cases today!  949 of these 5,205 new cases (18%) were youth and children under 18.  The majority, 3,026 cases (58%) were age 18-49.  852 cases (16%) were age 50-64, and 377 (7%) were 65+.
BELOW: color-coded chart shows CASES SINCE THE OUTBREAK BEGAN 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 since April of 2020.  Note the steady increase among children and 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 16.4% as of today, up dramatically from 15.9% at last report.  (From the CDC covid-data-tracker.)

COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION RATE:  Solano has risen dramatically and almost daily since December 27 into an EXTREMELY HIGH transmission rate, with a total of 6,196 new cases over the last 7 days, up from 1,829 at last report.  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 5,666 ACTIVE cases shot up dramatically today from the County’s January 10 report of 1,143 active cases.

CASES BY CITY – Wednesday, January 12:

• Benicia added 290 new cases in the last 2 days, a total of 2,188 cases since the outbreak began.  Benicia has seen 333 new infections in the last 7 days, raising far above the CDC’s HIGH rate of community transmission. >(For a city with Benicia’s population, anything over 27 is considered HIGH).  (see chart below).  Based on Benicia population, MODERATE is defined as less than 14 cases over the last 7 days, SUBSTANTIAL is 14-27 cases, and HIGH is 28 or more cases.  Benicia will need to maintain fewer than 14 new cases-per-7-days for 30 consecutive days before relaxing its mask mandate.  Note above that Solano County is currently also experiencing HIGH transmission.

• Dixon added 271 new cases today, total of 3,120 cases.
• Fairfield added 1,328 new cases today, total of 15,191 cases.
• Rio Vista reported 63 new cases today, total of 755 cases.
• Suisun City added 364 new cases today, total of 4,016 cases.
• Vacaville added 914 new cases today, a total of 14,536 cases.
• Vallejo added 1,969 new cases today, a total of 17,671 cases.
• Unincorporated added 6 new cases today, a total of 164 cases.

POSITIVE TEST RATE:  Solano County’s 7-Day Percent Positive Test Rate shot up after Christmas and has continued through today’s incredibly high 32%.  The County’s black and blue LINE GRAPH has the best detail, but those details are difficult to read, and the numbers are adjusted retroactively each day.  I’ve created a table here to show the County’s reading in today’s line graph. 

COMPARE: Today the California rate jumped to 19.4%.  [Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Center]  The U.S. rate fell slightly today to 28.59%. [Source: CDC COVID Data Tracker.] 

HOSPITALIZATIONS:

CURRENT hospitalizations: rose today from 103 to 112 persons, our highest number since September 8, 2021. (See also TOTAL hospitalizations, next below…)

TOTAL hospitalizations – PLUS 63.  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 updated its age and race hospitalizations charts today. Today’s age chart shows 63 previously unreported hospitalizations.  (Details below.)  Solano has reported 185 new hospitalizations by age group since December 1, including 119 just since Christmas.  Our total since the beginning of the outbreak is now 3,346 hospitalizations.

ICU Bed Availability in Solano County fell from 30% at last report to 29% today, still in the Yellow danger zone.

Ventilator Availability  was down sharply from 77% to 67%.

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.

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

Solano County modified its COVID dashboard on the evening of January 12, indicating that “Data from the State is not available and will be updated 1/13/22 by 4:00pm.”

For your most recent Solano and Benicia data, I am re-running Monday’s report below.  Check back here tomorrow.  (For additional Solano info on COVID, see Public Health’s Coronavirus (COVID-19) Information page.)
– Roger Straw

January 10, 2022 SUMMARY: Solano County recorded 558 new infections over the weekend, 4 new COVID-related deaths and 2 previously undisclosed hospitalizations.  Solano & Benicia continue in EXTREMELY HIGH rate of community transmission.

Solano Public Health COVID dashboard, Monday, January 10:

DEATHS: Solano reported 4 new deaths today, three age 50-64 and one 65+.  Three of the four were identified by race: 1 Black, 1 White and 1 Multi-race.  Trending: The County reported 27 COVID deaths in September, 18 in October, 14 in November, 22 in December, and 10 already in January (46 of us have died over 57 days since the uptick beginning on November 15).  A total of 361 Solano residents have now died of COVID or COVID-related causes over the course of the pandemic.

CASES BY AGE GROUP: The County reported 558 new COVID cases today.  88 of these 558 new cases (16%) were youth and children under 18.  The majority, 323 cases (58%) were age 18-49.  101 cases (18%) were age 50-64, and 47 (8%) were 65+.
BELOW: color-coded chart shows CASES SINCE THE OUTBREAK BEGAN 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 since April of 2020.  Note the steady increase among children and 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 15.9% as of today.  (From the CDC covid-data-tracker.)

COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION RATE:  Solano has risen dramatically since December 27 into what I would call an EXTREMELY HIGH transmission rate, with a total of 1,829 new cases over the last 7 days, down from 2,500 at last report.  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 1,143 ACTIVE cases is down from the County’s last report of 2,554 active cases.

CASES BY CITY – Monday, January 10:

• Benicia added 26 new cases over the weekend, a total of 1,898 cases since the outbreak began.  Benicia has seen 81 new infections in the last 7 days, and so remains in the CDC’s [EXTREMELY] HIGH rate of community transmission.  (see chart below).  Based on Benicia population, MODERATE is defined as less than 14 cases over the last 7 days, SUBSTANTIAL is 14-27 cases, and HIGH is 28 or more cases.  Benicia will need to maintain fewer than 14 new cases-per-7-days for 30 consecutive days before relaxing its mask mandate.  Note above that Solano County is currently also experiencing HIGH transmission.

• Dixon added 26 new cases today, total of 2,849 cases.
• Fairfield added 148 new cases today, total of 13,863 cases.
• Rio Vista reported 6 new cases today, total of 692 cases.
• Suisun City added 37 new cases today, total of 3,652 cases.
• Vacaville added 110 new cases today, a total of 13,622 cases.
• Vallejo added 205 new cases today, a total of 15,702 cases.
• Unincorporated added 0 new cases today, a total of 158 cases.

POSITIVE TEST RATE:  Solano County’s Percent Positive Test Rates shot up after Christmas.  But the test rate is tricky to follow.  In today’s Solano COVID dashboard, our 7-day positivity numbers supposedly fell from 18% to 13% – but that number will almost undoubtedly be adjusted upward in coming days.  A better understanding comes with the numbers in today’s 7-day % positive LINE GRAPH (blue below) which gets updated retroactively each day.  I’ve created a table here to show the County’s adjustments in today’s line graph.  The significance is that last Friday’s Jan. 7 report was totally misleading – and today’s report of 13% will turn out to be similarly unreliable. Today’s chart shows our largest spike in positive tests on January 3-4 rather than December 29-30.  The County adjusts these numbers after-the-fact every day.  Stay tuned.)

  COMPARE: Today the California rate jumped to 18.5%.  [Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Center]  The U.S. rate jumped to 29.36% today. [Source: CDC COVID Data Tracker.] 

HOSPITALIZATIONS:

CURRENT hospitalizations: rose dramatically today from 70 persons to 103 persons.  (See also TOTAL hospitalizations, next below…)

TOTAL hospitalizations – PLUS 2.  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 updated its age and race hospitalizations charts just a bit today. Today’s age chart showed 2 previously unreported hospitalizations, both age 65+.  One was Hispanic, the other not reported.  Solano hospitals have now reported a total of over 3,283 COVID patients since the beginning of the outbreak.

ICU Bed Availability in Solano County fell from 38% at last report to 30%, back in the Yellow danger zone.

Ventilator Availability  was up from 73% to 77%.

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.

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

January 10, 2022 SUMMARY: Solano County recorded 558 new infections over the weekend, 4 new COVID-related deaths and 2 previously undisclosed hospitalizations.  Solano & Benicia continue in EXTREMELY HIGH rate of community transmission.

Solano Public Health COVID dashboard, Monday, January 10:

DEATHS: Solano reported 4 new deaths today, three age 50-64 and one 65+.  Three of the four were identified by race: 1 Black, 1 White and 1 Multi-race.  Trending: The County reported 27 COVID deaths in September, 18 in October, 14 in November, 22 in December, and 10 already in January (46 of us have died over 57 days since the uptick beginning on November 15).  A total of 361 Solano residents have now died of COVID or COVID-related causes over the course of the pandemic.

CASES BY AGE GROUP: The County reported 558 new COVID cases today.  88 of these 558 new cases (16%) were youth and children under 18.  The majority, 323 cases (58%) were age 18-49.  101 cases (18%) were age 50-64, and 47 (8%) were 65+.
BELOW: color-coded chart shows CASES SINCE THE OUTBREAK BEGAN 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 since April of 2020.  Note the steady increase among children and 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 15.9% as of today.  (From the CDC covid-data-tracker.)

COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION RATE:  Solano has risen dramatically since December 27 into what I would call an EXTREMELY HIGH transmission rate, with a total of 1,829 new cases over the last 7 days, down from 2,500 at last report.  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 1,143 ACTIVE cases is down from the County’s last report of 2,554 active cases.

CASES BY CITY – Monday, January 10:

• Benicia added 26 new cases over the weekend, a total of 1,898 cases since the outbreak began.  Benicia has seen 81 new infections in the last 7 days, and so remains in the CDC’s [EXTREMELY] HIGH rate of community transmission.  (see chart below).  Based on Benicia population, MODERATE is defined as less than 14 cases over the last 7 days, SUBSTANTIAL is 14-27 cases, and HIGH is 28 or more cases.  Benicia will need to maintain fewer than 14 new cases-per-7-days for 30 consecutive days before relaxing its mask mandate.  Note above that Solano County is currently also experiencing HIGH transmission.

• Dixon added 26 new cases today, total of 2,849 cases.
• Fairfield added 148 new cases today, total of 13,863 cases.
• Rio Vista reported 6 new cases today, total of 692 cases.
• Suisun City added 37 new cases today, total of 3,652 cases.
• Vacaville added 110 new cases today, a total of 13,622 cases.
• Vallejo added 205 new cases today, a total of 15,702 cases.
• Unincorporated added 0 new cases today, a total of 158 cases.

POSITIVE TEST RATE:  Solano County’s Percent Positive Test Rates shot up after Christmas.  But the test rate is tricky to follow.  In today’s Solano COVID dashboard, our 7-day positivity numbers supposedly fell from 18% to 13% – but that number will almost undoubtedly be adjusted upward in coming days.  A better understanding comes with the numbers in today’s 7-day % positive LINE GRAPH (blue below) which gets updated retroactively each day.  I’ve created a table here to show the County’s adjustments in today’s line graph.  The significance is that last Friday’s Jan. 7 report was totally misleading – and today’s report of 13% will turn out to be similarly unreliable. Today’s chart shows our largest spike in positive tests on January 3-4 rather than December 29-30.  The County adjusts these numbers after-the-fact every day.  Stay tuned.)

  COMPARE: Today the California rate jumped to 18.5%.  [Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Center]  The U.S. rate jumped to 29.36% today. [Source: CDC COVID Data Tracker.] 

HOSPITALIZATIONS:

CURRENT hospitalizations: rose dramatically today from 70 persons to 103 persons.  (See also TOTAL hospitalizations, next below…)

TOTAL hospitalizations – PLUS 2.  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 updated its age and race hospitalizations charts just a bit today. Today’s age chart showed 2 previously unreported hospitalizations, both age 65+.  One was Hispanic, the other not reported.  Solano hospitals have now reported a total of over 3,283 COVID patients since the beginning of the outbreak.

ICU Bed Availability in Solano County fell from 38% at last report to 30%, back in the Yellow danger zone.

Ventilator Availability  was up from 73% to 77%.

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.

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

January 7, 2022 SUMMARY: Solano County recorded 433 new infections over the last two days, 1 new COVID-related death and 53 previously undisclosed hospitalizations.  Solano & Benicia continue in EXTREMELY HIGH rate of community transmission.

Solano dashboard, Friday, January 7:

DEATHS: Solano reported 1 new death today, a Hispanic/Latinx person age 50-64.  Trending: The County reported 27 COVID deaths in September, 18 in October, 14 in November, 22 in December, and 6 already in January (42 of us have died over 54 days since the uptick beginning on November 15).  A total of 357 Solano residents have now died of COVID or COVID-related causes over the course of the pandemic.

CASES BY AGE GROUP: The County reported 433 new COVID cases today.  78 of these 433 new cases (18%) were youth and children under 18.  The majority, 249 cases (58%) were age 18-49.  78 cases (18%) were age 50-64, and only 26 (6%) were 65+.
BELOW: color-coded chart shows CASES SINCE THE OUTBREAK BEGAN BY AGE GROUP, expressed as a percentage of TOTAL CASES SINCE THE OUTBREAK BEGAN.  Increases are in red and decreases are in green as reported by Solano County since April of 2020.  Note the steady increase among children and 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 15.9% as of today.  (From the CDC covid-data-tracker.)

COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION RATE:  Solano has risen dramatically and daily into what I would call an EXTREMELY HIGH transmission rate, with a total of 2,500 new cases over the last 7 days, up from 2,067 at last report.  This is surely the OMICRON variant spreading wildly.  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 2,554 ACTIVE cases is down from the County’s last report of 2,708 active cases.

CASES BY CITY – Friday, January 7:

• Benicia added 17 new cases since Monday, a total of 1,872 cases since the outbreak began.  Benicia has seen a new high of 147 infections in the last 7 days, and so remains in the CDC’s [EXTREMELY] HIGH rate of community transmission.  (see chart below).  Based on Benicia population, MODERATE is defined as less than 14 cases over the last 7 days, SUBSTANTIAL is 14-27 cases, and HIGH is 28 or more cases.  Benicia will need to maintain fewer than 14 new cases-per-7-days for 30 consecutive days before relaxing its mask mandate.  Note above that Solano County is currently also experiencing HIGH transmission.

• Dixon added 31 new cases today, total of 2,823 cases.
• Fairfield added 101 new cases today, total of 13,715 cases.
• Rio Vista reported 7 new cases today, total of 686 cases.
• Suisun City added 18 new cases today, total of 3,615 cases.
• Vacaville added 96 new cases today, a total of 13,512 cases.
• Vallejo added 163 new cases today, a total of 15,497 cases.
• Unincorporated added 0 new cases today, a total of 158 cases.

POSITIVE TEST RATE:  Solano County’s Percent Positive Test Rates skyrocketed after Christmas.  In today’s report our 7-day positivity numbers supposedly fell from 30% to 18% – but that number is likely to be adjusted upward in coming days.  A better understanding comes with the numbers below, that come from today’s adjusted Percent positive tests LINE GRAPH which gets updated retroactively each day.  Today’s chart shows our largest spikes Dec. 29-31.  (And I simply DO NOT BELIEVE the Jan. 3-4 numbers.  The County WILL adjust them – stay tuned.)

  COMPARE: Today the California rate jumped to 17.5%.  [Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Center]  The U.S. rate rose to 27.94% today. [Source: CDC COVID Data Tracker.] 

HOSPITALIZATIONS:

CURRENT hospitalizations: rose slightly today from 69 persons to 70 persons.  (See also TOTAL hospitalizations, next below…)

TOTAL hospitalizations – PLUS 53!  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 updated its age and race hospitalizations charts today. Today’s age chart showed 53 previously unreported hospitalizations.  Solano hospitals have now reported a total of over 3,281 COVID patients since the beginning of the outbreak.  (See my summary chart below.  Note that Solano’s data on age is more reliable than that on race/ethnicity.)

ICU Bed Availability in Solano County rose from 30% at last report to 38%, just out of the Yellow danger zone.

Ventilator Availability  was down from 76% to 73%.

STATE OF CALIFORNIA MASK MANDATE (this section not updated on the BenIndy lately…)

From COVID19.CA.GOV:
Wear your mask in indoor public spaces and workplaces!
Due to a recent increase in cases, CDPH has mandated that everyone in California wear a mask in indoor public spaces and workplaces. The order is in effect December 15, 2021 to January 15, 2022.  LEARN MORE…

SOLANO COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT REQUIRES MASKS INDOORS IN ALL PUBLIC PLACES

Solano County follows State of California guidelines, requiring the wearing of a mask indoors – in all public places – even if you’re fully vaccinated.

From Solano County’s COVID-19 Dashboard:

12/20/21 Update
Mask Requirement Flyers: (English – PDF) (English – Word Doc) (Spanish – PDF) (Spanish – Word Doc)
12/13/21 Update
CDPH Face Coverings Updated Guidance
From December 15, 2021 – January 15, 2022, the state requires wearing a mask indoors – in all public places – even if you’re fully vaccinated. 
CDPH Travel Guidance
CDPH Mega Events Guidance
Solano County guidance for celebrating holiday traditions safely
Visit the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) website or the CDC website for additional holiday tips on protecting yourself and your family during the holidays

BENICIA’S MASK MANDATE REMAINS IN PLACE – DETAILS…

• CLICK HERE for Dr. Richard Fleming’s thoughtful follow-up on Council’s December 7 decision to continue the mask mandate 
• See also Steve Golub’s ALERT in advance of Council’s December 7 meeting.
• Background – Nov 18, 2021 – Benicia City Council decides to keep mask mandate in place, will review again on Dec. 7 and
• Background – Nov 18, 2021 – Open Letter to Benicia City Council: Dr. Richard Fleming on mask mandate
• Background – Aug 24, 2021 – Benicia Mask Mandate, City Resolution 21-88
• Background – Explanation of the CDC’s population-based transmission rate for Benicia and for Solano (above)

SOLANO COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS failed to consider an agendized proposal for a countywide MASK MANDATE on Tuesday, September 14.  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.

RETURN TO TOP

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.