Tag Archives: Vaccine

Four new COVID-related deaths in Solano County, 558 new cases

NOTE: The information below is not the latest.  CLICK HERE for today’s latest information.

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:

Tap image to enlarge. (Interactive version: Solano COVID dashboard.)

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 mandateNote 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.)

Tap image to enlarge. (Interactive version: Solano COVID dashboard.)

  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.

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Solano details 53 previously unreported COVID hospitalizations, case numbers continue to rise

NOTE: The information below is not the latest.  CLICK HERE for today’s latest information.

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:

Tap image to enlarge. (Interactive version: Solano COVID dashboard.)

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 mandateNote 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.)

Tap image to enlarge. (Interactive version: Solano COVID dashboard.)

  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
Masks Required in Solano

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…
On December 7, Benicia City Council chose to keep the city’s mask mandate in place for another 30 days and review again in January. All Councilmembers expressed confidence that Benicia’s case numbers are likely to remain in MODERATE transmission for a 30-day period soon, [note that this has NOT been the case – Benicia has lapsed back into the HIGH transmission rate].  After 30 days in the MODERATE rate, the City Manager is empowered to unilaterally lift the mask mandate.  Four Councilmembers (excluding Mr. Largaespada) chose to remain cautious under the current mandate, requiring the 30-days at MODERATE.  If all goes well, the mandate may have been lifted before a possible reconsideration at the January 18 Council meeting.  But if the mandate is still in place on January 18, Council has now directed staff to bring a recommendation at that time for changing the METRICS by which the City determines a safe cutoff date for lifting the mask mandate.   All members agreed that the 7-day-case-rate metric would be strengthened if in some fashion it could be combined with hospitalization rates and vaccination rates.  How to determine those rates, and how to combine them for a determination would be covered in the staff recommendation.
See the video discussion of the Dec. 7 Council meeting – CLICK HERE (then scroll down on the agenda and click on item number 21.A – UPDATE ON FACE COVERINGS MANDATE.)
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.  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

OMICRON surging in Benicia and Solano County, 78% of new cases among those under age 50

NOTE: The information below is not the latest.  CLICK HERE for today’s latest information.

January 5, 2022 SUMMARY: Solano County recorded 838 new infections over the last two days, and 1 new COVID-related death.  Solano & Benicia continue in EXTREMELY HIGH rate of community transmission.

Solano dashboard, Wednesday, January 5:

DEATHS: Solano reported 1 new death today, someone age 50-64 who was White.  Trending: The County reported 27 COVID deaths in September, 18 in October, 14 in November, 22 in December, and 5 already in January (41 of us have died over 52 days since the uptick beginning on November 15).  A total of 356 Solano residents have now died of COVID or COVID-related causes over the course of the pandemic.

CASES BY AGE GROUP: The County reported 838 new COVID cases today.  169 of these 838 new cases (20%) were youth and children under 18.  The majority, 483 cases (58%) were age 18-49.  130 cases (16%) were age 50-64, and 56 (only 7%) 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 at 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 2,067 new cases over the last 7 days, up from 1,872 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 2,708 ACTIVE cases is up dramatically again from the County’s last report of 2,017 active cases.

CASES BY CITY – Wednesday, January 5:

  • Benicia added 38 new cases since Monday, 19 per day and a total of 1,855 cases since the outbreak began.  Benicia has seen 130 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 mandateNote above that Solano County is currently also experiencing HIGH transmission.

  • Dixon added 29 new cases today, total of 2,792 cases.
  • Fairfield added 211 new cases today, total of 13,614 cases.
  • Rio Vista reported 10 new cases today, total of 679 cases.
  • Suisun City added 49 new cases today, total of 3,597 cases.
  • Vacaville added 162 new cases today, a total of 13,416 cases.
  • Vallejo added 338 new cases today, a total of 15,334 cases.
  • Unincorporated added 1 new case today, a total of 158 cases.

POSITIVE TEST RATE:  On Solano County’s Percent Positive Test LINE GRAPH, we see that rates skyrocketed after Christmas and continue to rise.  In today’s report our 7-day positivity numbers are at 30%, a rate only seen once before, on January 4, 2021.  These numbers come from today’s adjusted Percent positive tests LINE GRAPH.

Solano 7-day test positivity was 31% on Dec. 30, 2021

  COMPARE: Today the California rate is 15.9%.  [Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Center]  The U.S. rate jumped to 27.04% today. [Source: CDC COVID Data Tracker.] 

HOSPITALIZATIONS:

CURRENT hospitalizations: rose substantially today from 56 persons to 69 persons.  (See also TOTAL hospitalizations, next below…)

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. The age chart showed 1 previously unreported hospitalization today, a person age 50-64, who was White.  Solano hospitals have now reported a total of over 3,228 COVID patients since the beginning of the outbreak.  (Data on age is more reliable than that on race/ethnicity.)

ICU Bed Availability in Solano County rose from 23% at last report to 30%, still in the Yellow danger zone.

Ventilator Availability  was up from 71% to 76%.

STATE OF CALIFORNIA MASK MANDATE

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
Masks Required in Solano

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…
On December 7, Benicia City Council chose to keep the city’s mask mandate in place for another 30 days and review again in January. All Councilmembers expressed confidence that Benicia’s case numbers are likely to remain in MODERATE transmission for a 30-day period soon, [note that this has NOT been the case – Benicia has lapsed back into the HIGH transmission rate].  After 30 days in the MODERATE rate, the City Manager is empowered to unilaterally lift the mask mandate.  Four Councilmembers (excluding Mr. Largaespada) chose to remain cautious under the current mandate, requiring the 30-days at MODERATE.  If all goes well, the mandate may have been lifted before a possible reconsideration at the January 18 Council meeting.  But if the mandate is still in place on January 18, Council has now directed staff to bring a recommendation at that time for changing the METRICS by which the City determines a safe cutoff date for lifting the mask mandate.   All members agreed that the 7-day-case-rate metric would be strengthened if in some fashion it could be combined with hospitalization rates and vaccination rates.  How to determine those rates, and how to combine them for a determination would be covered in the staff recommendation.
See the video discussion of the Dec. 7 Council meeting – CLICK HERE (then scroll down on the agenda and click on item number 21.A – UPDATE ON FACE COVERINGS MANDATE.)
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.  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 and Benicia now in EXTREMELY HIGH COVID transmission rates

NOTE: The information below is not the latest.  CLICK HERE for today’s latest information.

Solano County Public Health corrected the January 3 COVID dashboard this morning, including shockingly high 7-day positive test numbers, over 1,200 new cases, 4 deaths, hospitalizations, major increases in City data, as well as age and race details.  This is the first accurate update since experiencing technical problems in December.

January 3, 2022 UPDATED SUMMARY: Solano County recorded 1,229 new infections over the New Year holiday, and
4 new COVID-related deaths.  Solano & Benicia continue in EXTREMELY HIGH rate of community transmission.

Solano dashboard, Monday, January 3:

DEATHS: Solano reported 4 new deaths as of Monday, January 3.  Demographic data on these and two previous deaths were reported: Two who died were age 18-49, two were age 50-64 and two were over 65. One was Black, one Hispanic/Latinx, and two White.  Trending: The County reported 27 COVID deaths in September, 18 in October, 14 in November, 22 in December, and 4 already in January (40 of us have died over 50 days since the uptick beginning on November 15).  A total of 355 Solano residents have now died of COVID or COVID-related causes over the course of the pandemic.

CASES BY AGE GROUP: The County reported 1,229 new COVID cases today, but the County’s demographic report updated information on 1,872 new cases reported over the last 7 days.  331 of these 1,872 new cases (18%) were youth and children under 18.  The majority, 1,151 cases (61%) were age 18-49.  270 cases (14%) were age 50-64, and 120 (only 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 at 15.8% as of today.  (From the CDC covid-data-tracker.)

COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION RATE: Over the last week, Solano has risen dramatically into what I would call EXTREMELY HIGH transmission, with 1,872 new cases, up from 1,486 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 2,017 ACTIVE cases is up dramatically from the County’s last report of 1,382 active cases.

CASES BY CITY – Monday, January 3, 2022:

  • Benicia added 92 (!) new cases since the County’s last report 7 days ago, an average of 14 every day and a total of 1,817 cases since the outbreak began.  Benicia remains in the CDC’s 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 mandateNote above that Solano County is currently also experiencing HIGH transmission.

  • Dixon added 74 new cases today, total of 2,763 cases.
  • Fairfield added 439 new cases today, total of 13,403 cases.
  • Rio Vista reported 20 new cases today, total of 669 cases.
  • Suisun City added 116 new cases today, total of 3,548 cases.
  • Vacaville added 397 new cases today, a total of 13,254 cases.
  • Vallejo added 729 new cases today, a total of 14,996 cases.
  • Unincorporated added 5 new cases today, a total of 156 cases.

CORRECTED DATA ON POSITIVE TEST RATE:  On Dec. 29, I observed a dramatic discrepancy between Solano’s 7-day test positivity data as displayed on a PC (16%) compared to that displayed on an android phone (22.9%). I held off posting an update until now, awaiting today’s conclusive and corrected County numbers. Solano County Public Health Officer Bela Matyas reported that they have been experiencing “transmission errors” and were looking into quality control measures to reduce such errors. My best guess proved true: our 7-day positivity numbers have been well over 16% over the holidays.  We will watch in coming days for further updates.  These numbers come from the dashboard’s Percent positive tests LINE GRAPH.

  COMPARE: The 1/3/22 California rate is 10.8%.  [Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Center]  The U.S. rate jumped to 17.13% as of 1/3/22. [Source: CDC COVID Data Tracker.] 

HOSPITALIZATIONS:

CURRENT hospitalizations: rose substantially today from 44 persons to 56 persons.  (See also TOTAL hospitalizations, next below…)

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 minimally updated its age and race hospitalizations charts today. The age chart showed 2 previously unreported hospitalizations today, including 1 young adult age 18-49, and 1 of our elders age 65+.  One was Black and one was Hispanic.  Solano hospitals have now reported a total of over 3,227 COVID patients since the beginning of the outbreak.  (Data on age is more reliable than that on race/ethnicity.)

ICU Bed Availability in Solano County rose from 20% at last report to 23%, in the Yellow danger zone.  [See also in today’s SF Chronicle: Napa County runs out of ICU hospital beds amid spike in Bay Area virus cases.]

Ventilator Availability  was up slightly from 69% to 71%.

STATE OF CALIFORNIA MASK MANDATE

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
Masks Required in Solano

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…
On December 7, Benicia City Council chose to keep the city’s mask mandate in place for another 30 days and review again in January. All Councilmembers expressed confidence that Benicia’s case numbers are likely to remain in MODERATE transmission for a 30-day period soon, [note that this has NOT been the case – Benicia has lapsed back into the HIGH transmission rate].  After 30 days in the MODERATE rate, the City Manager is empowered to unilaterally lift the mask mandate.  Four Councilmembers (excluding Mr. Largaespada) chose to remain cautious under the current mandate, requiring the 30-days at MODERATE.  If all goes well, the mandate may have been lifted before a possible reconsideration at the January 18 Council meeting.  But if the mandate is still in place on January 18, Council has now directed staff to bring a recommendation at that time for changing the METRICS by which the City determines a safe cutoff date for lifting the mask mandate.   All members agreed that the 7-day-case-rate metric would be strengthened if in some fashion it could be combined with hospitalization rates and vaccination rates.  How to determine those rates, and how to combine them for a determination would be covered in the staff recommendation.
See the video discussion of the Dec. 7 Council meeting – CLICK HERE (then scroll down on the agenda and click on item number 21.A – UPDATE ON FACE COVERINGS MANDATE.)
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.  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.

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