Tag Archives: Vallejo CA

Coronavirus, Covid 19, Solano County CA

COVID-19 May 12 UPDATE: Solano County adds 1 death and 9 new cases

Tuesday, May 12: 9 new positive cases, 1 new death. Total now 388 cases, 11 deaths.

Solano County Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Updates and Resources.  Check out basic information in this screenshot.  IMPORTANT: The County’s interactive page has more.  On the County website, you can click on “Number of cases” and then hover over the charts for detailed information.

Previous report, Monday, May 11

Summary

Solano County reported 9 new positive cases today, total is now 388.  1 new death, total now at 11.  One of the new cases was a young person under age 18.  The death was an elder, age 65 or older.  This makes 4 new deaths since Friday May 8.

BY AGE GROUP

  • 1 new case of a young person under 19 years of age, total of 7 cases, just under 2% of the 388 confirmed cases.
  • 5 of today’s 9 new cases were persons 19-64 years of age, total of 279 cases, 72% of the total.   No new deaths, total of 2.  Note that only 34 of the 279 cases in this age group (12.2%) were hospitalized at one time.  (It is unclear whether the 2 deaths were ever hospitalized.)
  • 3 of today’s 28 new cases were persons 65 or older, total of 102 cases, 26.3% of the total.  2 new deaths, total of 9.  (One of these deaths was included in yesterday’s overall County count but went unrecorded until now in this age-group chart.)  Note that 26 of the 102 cases in this age group (25.5%) were hospitalized at one time, more than double the percentage in the mid-age group.  (It is unclear whether the 7 deaths in this age group were ever hospitalized.)

HOSPITALIZATIONS: 61 of Solano’s 388 cases resulted in hospitalizations, same as yesterday.  Good news – no increase.

ACTIVE CASES:  47 of the 388 cases are active, 1 more than yesterday.   Note that the county does not report WHERE the active cases are.  Below you will see that only 13 are currently hospitalized, which leaves 34 of these 47 active cases out in our communities somewhere, and hopefully quarantined.

The County’s “Hospital Impact” graph shows 13 of the 61 hospitalized cases are CURRENTLY hospitalized, same as yesterday.  The County’s count of ICU beds available and ventilator supply remains at “GOOD” at 31-100%. (No information is given on our supply of test kits, PPE and staff.)

CITY DATA

  • Vallejo added 8 of today’s 9 new cases, total of  230.
  • Fairfield remains at 67 cases.
  • Vacaville added 1 of today’s 9 new cases, total of 37.
  • Suisun City remains at 20 cases.
  • Benicia remains at 18 cases.
  • Dixon, Rio Vista and “Unincorporated” are still not assigned numerical data: today all remain at <10 (less than 10).  Note that the numbers for other cities add up to 372, leaving 16 cases located somewhere among the locations in this “<10” category (same number as last reported).  Residents and city officials have pressured County officials for city case counts.  Today’s data is welcome, but still incomplete.

TESTING

The County reports that 5,669 residents have been tested as of today.  This is an increase of 93 residents tested since yesterday’s total of 5,576.  This comes a week after the County announced the opening of new State run testing sites in Vacaville and Vallejo, open to anyone.  When will we see our testing numbers surge?
· See Solano testing – by the numbers April 13 – present.
· See also Solano County announces testing available to all.
We have a long way to go: only 1% of Solano County’s 447,643 residents (2019) have been tested.

Solano’s upward curve – as of May 12

This chart shows the infection’s steady upward trajectory in Solano County.  Our “curve” continues to creep up.  Our nursing homes, long-term care facilities and jails bear watching!

Still incredibly important – everyone stay home, wear masks when you are out, and be safe!

Coronavirus, Covid 19, Solano County CA

Solano’s big COVID-19 weekend: 3 new deaths and 28 new cases

Monday, May 11
28 new positive cases, 3 new deaths.
Total now 379 cases, 10 deaths.

Solano County Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Updates and Resources.  Check out basic information in this screenshot. IMPORTANT: The County’s interactive page has more.  On the County website, you can click on “Number of cases” and then hover over the charts for detailed information.

Previous report, Friday, May 8

Summary

Solano County reported 28 new positive cases over the weekend and Monday, total is now 351.  3 new deaths, total now at 10.

OVER THE WEEKEND:

  • 17 new cases were reported on Saturday 5/9
  • 4 new cases were reported on Sunday 5/10
  • 7 new cases were reported today, Monday 5/11

BY AGE GROUP

  • No new cases of young persons under 19 years of age, total of 6 cases, just over 1.5% of the 379 confirmed cases.
  • 17 of today’s 28 new cases were persons 19-64 years of age, total of 274 cases, 72% of the total.   No new deaths, total of 2.  Note that only 34 of the 274 cases in this age group (12.4%) were hospitalized at one time.  (It is unclear whether the 2 deaths were ever hospitalized.)
  • 13 of today’s 28 new cases were persons 65 or older, total of 99 cases, 26.1% of the total.  2 new deaths, total of 7.  Note that 26 of the 99 cases in this age group (26.3%) were hospitalized at one time, more than double the percentage in the mid-age group.  (It is unclear whether the 7 deaths in this age group were ever hospitalized.)
  • There are two errors in the County’s report today.  The age group chart adds 17 plus 13 new cases totaling 30, when only 28 new cases are reported in the overall count.  Also, only 2 new deaths are reported in this age group chart, while the overall count shows 3.

HOSPITALIZATIONS: 61 of Solano’s 379 cases resulted in hospitalizations, an increase of only 1 over the weekend and Monday.  Relatively good news – a small increase.

ACTIVE CASES:  The number of active cases is back up after a mysterious dip on Friday.  46 of the 379 are active cases, 23 more than on Friday.  (Friday showed an unusually high drop in active cases – from 72 to 23, after the number hovered around 70 for the week preceding.) Note that the county does not report WHERE the active cases are.  Below you will see that only 13 are currently hospitalized, which leaves 33 of these 46 active cases out in our communities somewhere, and hopefully quarantined.

The County’s “Hospital Impact” graph shows 13 of the 61 hospitalized cases are CURRENTLY hospitalized, 3 more than on Friday.  The County’s count of ICU beds available and ventilator supply remains at “GOOD” at 31-100%. (No information is given on our supply of test kits, PPE and staff.)

CITY DATA

  • Vallejo added 20 of today’s 28 new cases, total of  222.
  • Fairfield added 2 of today’s 28 new cases, total of 67.
  • Vacaville remains at 36 (steady over the last 4 days).
  • Suisun City added 4 of today’s 28 new cases, total of 20.
  • Benicia added 2 of today’s 28 new cases, total of 18.
  • Dixon, Rio Vista and “Unincorporated” are still not assigned numerical data: today all remain at <10 (less than 10).  Note that the numbers for other cities add up to 363, leaving 16 cases located somewhere among the locations in this “<10” category (same number as last reported).  Residents and city officials have pressured County officials for city case counts.  Today’s data is welcome, but still incomplete.

TESTING

The County reports that 5,576 residents have been tested as of today.  This is an increase of 207 residents tested since Friday’s total of 5,379.  That is an average of only 69 new tests per day.  This relatively small increase comes a week after the County announced the opening of new State run testing sites in Vacaville and Vallejo, open to anyone.  When will we see our testing numbers surge?
· See Solano testing – by the numbers April 13 – present.
· See also Solano County announces testing available to all.
We have a long way to go: only 1% of Solano County’s 447,643 residents (2019) have been tested.

Solano’s upward curve in cumulative cases – as of May 11

This chart shows the infection’s steady upward trajectory in Solano County.  Our curve continues to creep up.  Our nursing homes, long-term care facilities and jails bear watching!

Still incredibly important – everyone stay home, wear masks when you are out, and be safe!

Coronavirus, Covid 19, Solano County CA, Vallejo CA

Vallejo and Solano County: COVID-19 is bad, but not as bad as the 1918 flu pandemic

Brendan Riley’s Solano Chronicles: Old reports show pandemic impact in Solano County

Spanish Flu victims were treated at the Navy’s hospital on Mare Island and at other facilities on the island and in nearby Vallejo. (Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum files)
Vallejo Times-Herald, by Brendan Riley, May 10, 2020

My recent column on the Spanish Flu of 1918 outlined its deadly impact on Vallejo and Mare Island. After the column was published, I was able to locate two century-old state reports that have a lot more information about the pandemic, one of the worst in history, including details on influenza-related deaths throughout Solano County.

According to the old California Board of Health reports, the Spanish Flu killed 341 people in Solano County between 1918 and 1920 – more than half of them in the first wave to hit our area, between late September and early December 1918. Another 169 deaths in the 1918-20 period were caused by pneumonia, probably linked to the influenza in most cases. Three-quarters of all the known victims were from Vallejo and Mare Island while the rest were from smaller communities.

After the first cases of Spanish Flu were reported, Mare Island and Vallejo responded by banning large gatherings, barring liberty for sailors in Vallejo, shutting down theaters, dance halls, libraries, schools, churches and other sites used for “public assembly.” Emergency hospitals also were opened and face masks were mandated. Restrictions also were imposed in other towns in the county.

The 1918 flu deaths totaled 163 in the Vallejo area and 53 elsewhere in Solano County. Victims included Marian Turner, a nurse in charge of one of the Navy’s influenza wards on Mare Island; and Adolph Widenmann, member of a well-known Vallejo family. Other victims included Morris Buck of Vacaville and Dan O’Connell of Benicia, prominent farmers in Solano County; and three daughters and one son of Mr. and Mrs. Bert Evins, Dixon farmers.

By early December the crisis seemed to be ending and restrictions were lifted. But a second wave of influenza developed in January 1919 and the restrictions had to be imposed again, lasting in Vallejo until the end of the month. The 1919 total of flu deaths was 35 in Vallejo and 18 in the rest of the county. The victims who died during January included B.F. Griffin, president of the First National Bank of Vallejo – whose daughter-in-law, Mrs. Roscoe Griffin, had died from the virus a few months earlier.

The state Board of Health reports, published in 1921 and 1923, show that the third wave hit in early 1920, with 58 flu deaths in Vallejo and another 14 deaths elsewhere in Solano County. A ban on indoor public meetings and other restrictions were imposed again, remaining in place in Vallejo and on Mare Island until mid-February. A week later, similar restrictions were ordered in Vacaville. The 1920 victims included a Navy doctor, Lt. Edward McColl.

The state reports give a Solano County breakdown only for Vallejo. With a 1918 population of about 14,145, it was well above the 5,000-population cutoff for California towns and cities listed in the documents. Fairfield, Vacaville, Benicia and other communities in Solano County were all under 5,000 residents per town at the time. Their combined population totaled 16,251.

In addition to the total of 341 flu-related deaths in Solano County, the state reports also provide the totals for neighboring counties in the 1918-20 time frame: Marin, 135; Napa, 159; Sonoma, 317; and Contra Costa, 453.

Those numbers were dwarfed by the number of influenza deaths from 1918 to 1920 in the Bay Area’s most populous counties, Alameda with 2,004 and San Francisco with 3,829. The Spanish Flu death total for the entire state of California in the 1918-20 period was 20,801.

Those in the 25-to-34 age group suffered more than any other age group in the state. “In 1917 the average Californian died at the age of 52 years,” the 1921 Board of Health report stated. “In 1918 this dropped to 40.6 years, showing clearly the ravages of influenza among the young.”

“As in all other parts of the country, a feeling of impotence in the face of a rapidly spreading infection on the part of the health officers (in California) was responsible for much confusion and lack of proper utilization of what scanty means of control were available,” the report said. Adding to the problem was “the invocation of many peculiar and useless measures that were intended to check the epidemic,” the report added.

Around the U.S., many doctors prescribed whiskey for people sickened by influenza. Dubious tonics, promising protection or relief from the flu, included Dr. Pierce’s Pleasant Pellets, Dr. Bell’s Pine Tar Honey, Schenck’s Mandrake Pills, Beecham’s Pills, Pepto-Mangan and Miller’s Antiseptic Snake Oil. There were accounts of mothers telling their children to stuff salt up their noses and wear bags of camphor around their necks. A four-year-old girl from Portland, Ore. was said to have recovered from the flu after her mother dosed her with onion syrup and covered her with raw onions for three days.

“Back in 1918, the basic treatments that were offered were enemas, whiskey, and bloodletting,” Dr. Jeremy Brown, director of emergency care research at the National Institutes of Health, said during a recent CBS interview.

The Spanish Flu killed an estimated 675,000 people in the U.S. and as many as 50 million people worldwide. Now the world is threatened by the COVID-19 pandemic, but because of the advances in science Dr. Brown argues that 2020 won’t be another 1918.

“Hospitals as we know them today were quite different,” Brown said. “There were no intensive care doctors who really understand how to treat the very sickest patients. There were no antibiotics to treat any secondary infection. So, it was a very, very different time, and a very different way of practicing medicine back then.”

— Vallejo and other Solano County communities are treasure troves of early-day California history. The “Solano Chronicles” columns, running every other Sunday in the Times-Herald and on my Facebook page, highlight various aspects of that history. Source references are available upon request. If you have local stories or photos to share, email me at genoans@hotmail.com. You also can send any material care of the Times-Herald, 420 Virginia St.; or the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum, 734 Marin St., Vallejo.
Coronavirus, Covid 19, Nursing homes, Solano County CA, Vallejo CA

UPDATE: Windsor Vallejo Nursing Home now at 102 infected, 3 dead

Families concerned after Vallejo care center reports 103 COVID-19 infections, 3 deaths

KRON4 Bay Area News, by: Maureen Kell, May 8, 2020

VALLEJO, Calif. (KRON) — There’s been a third coronavirus death and more positive cases among residents at the Windsor Vallejo Care Center.

That means there are now 103 confirmed infected cases at that nursing home.

KRON4’s Maureen Kelly talked to the family of a patient who’s now in ICU because of the virus.

“They thought he would not make it to the through the night,” the aunt of William Bennett III said.

She said the 31-year-old COVID positive patient is now out of Windsor Vallejo Care Center and in ICU at Sutter Solano.

“He coded twice and they put the incubator in and the feeding tube,” she said. “And today they thought he was gonna be brain dead or have some brain issue, but today he recognize a doctor he opened up his eyes.”

Bennett has been living at the nursing home for over a year after suffering a series of strokes and being diagnosed with a rare blood disorder.

He is one of 80 residents who have tested positive at the facility over the last two weeks — three have died. 23 staff members have have also been infected.

His aunt had him moved to a room near a window so she and other family members could check on him. She said she was worried about him and wanted him hospitalized because he seemed lethargic.

“We knew he needed to be out of there,” she said.

He was transported by ambulance a few hours after her concerns were aired on KRON4 News.

It’s a skilled nursing home that was already having problems.

A medicare inspection report from the Department of Health and Human Services from April 12 found 23 health citations. Including one which found that the facility failed to ensure that the infection control principals were being followed. It was given a rating of much below average.

“You need to be mindful of people who cannot do for themselves,” she said. “And if you don’t have the compassion for it then you’re in the wrong business.”

A Windsor Vallejo Care Center issued a statement this week that staff are constantly getting updated training on best practices in regard to infection control and that they adhering to all federal and state recommendations to minimize the spread of this virus.

Bennet’s aunt says the doctors hope to wean him from the ventilator over the next two days. She says when her nephew is out of hospital, he will not be going back to that nursing home.

See previous BenIndy reports on Windsor Vallejo Care Center…
NOTE: Windsor Vallejo’s website does an excellent job of sharing extensive information about coronavirus, including an easy way for families to schedule Virtual Visits, but does not disclose numbers of positive or active cases.