DEATHS: The County reported 2 new deaths today, both age 50-64. One was White and one was Multi-race. Total deaths now number 266.
CASES: The County reported a whopping 327 new COVID over the last 2 days, 164 per day, even higher than last week’s 157 per day. Case numbers show a startling increase in the PERCENTAGE OF YOUNG PERSONS age 0-17, increasing another tenth of a percent to a new high of 13.3% of total cases. The percentage of youth cases has increased very slowly over the course of the pandemic, starting below 6%, and very gradually reaching 12% in mid-April of 2021. CASES-PER DAY TREND (All Age Groups): We are experiencing a dramatic “summer surge” now. Cases-per-day were trending downward in the Spring, but rose rapidly in July and are skyrocketing here in August:
ACTIVE CASES: Solano’s 904 ACTIVE cases is up from Monday’s 833, and alarmingly up from 212 on July 2, and in the range we experienced during the winter surge.
CURRENT hospitalizations were up slightly today from 143 to 147 persons, still higher than any time since the winter surge.
ICU Bed Availability was up from yesterday’s shockingly low 18%, showing 30% of beds available today. Still in the yellow danger zone.
Ventilator Availability was up slightly today from 51% to 58%, and continuing in the range we saw last winter.
TOTAL Hospitalized – The County’s Monday-Friday dashboard shows an intake/discharge total of CURRENTLY hospitalized cases (above), but never reports on the TOTAL hospitalized over the course of the pandemic. That total must be independently discovered in the County’s occasional update of the Hospitalizations by Age Group chart. The County updated its Hospitalizations charts today. The Age Group chart shows 28 new hospitalizations, 5 age 18-49, 15 age 50-64, and 3 over 65 – a total of 2,084 persons hospitalized since the beginning of the outbreak, in the following age groups:
| Age Group | Hospitalizations | % of Total |
| 0-17 | 36 | 2% |
| 18-49 | 590 | 28% |
| 50-64 | 564 | 27% |
| 65+ | 894 | 43% |
| TOTAL | 2,084 | 100% |
The Hospitalizations by Race / Ethnicity chart shows 23 new hospitalizations today, 2 Asians, 1 Black, 7 Latinx, 10 White, and 3 Multirace – a total of 1,952 persons hospitalized since the beginning of the outbreak. Here are the current numbers and percentages. Interestingly, the total doesn’t square with the total by age groups.
| Race / Ethnicity | Hospitalizations | % of Total |
| Asians | 325 | 17% |
| Black / African American | 337 | 17% |
| Hispanic / Latinx | 562 | 29% |
| White | 641 | 33% |
| Multirace / Others | 87 | 4% |
| TOTAL | 1,952 | 100% |
GOOD NEWS! Yesterday, Benicia Council passed a citywide indoors mask mandate. The Council heard from Dr. Bela Matyas, Dr. Bonnie Hamilton and the public, which was almost entirely in favor of a mandate and included a number of medical professionals. Councilmembers debated on various finer points, and passed the resolution on a 5-0 vote around 10:15pm. The mandate went into effect immediately. Everyone 4 years old and up must now wear a mask indoors in public places, even those of us who are vaccinated. A press release, the order and a flyer now appears on the City website. For those interested in viewing last night’s procedings, the video is posted on the City website, at benicia.granicus.com/player/clip/3528?view_id=1…. The mask mandate discussion begins around minute 23.
Benicia is the first Solano city to take action despite the County’s lack of strong guidance on masks. In the Bay Area, Solano County REMAINS the only holdout against even RECOMMENDING masks in public indoors spaces. Hopefully, Dr. Matyas will learn from Benicia, and make the necessary difficult decisions. [sta_anchor id=”breaking” /]
Please mask indoors in public now, and maybe even indoors with vaccinated family and friends! And PLEASE talk to anyone you know who isn’t vaccinated. This thing ain’t over yet!
DEATHS: The County reported 2 new deaths today, 1 person age 50-64 and 1 age 65+. One was Hispanic/Latinx and one was White. Total deaths now number 264.
CASES: The County reported 238 new COVID cases over the weekend, 79 per day, down dramatically from last week’s 157 per day. Case numbers show a startling increase in the PERCENTAGE OF YOUNG PERSONS age 0-17, increasing 0.3% last week to a new high of 13.2% of total cases. The percentage of youth cases has increased very slowly over the course of the pandemic, starting below 6%, and very gradually reaching 12% in mid-April of 2021. CASES-PER DAY TREND (All Age Groups): We are experiencing a dramatic “summer surge” now. Cases-per-day were trending downward in the Spring, but rose rapidly in July and are skyrocketing here in August:
ACTIVE CASES: Solano’s 833 ACTIVE cases was down from Friday’s astonishing high or 1,087, but still up alarmingly from 212 on July 2, and in the range we experienced during the winter surge.
CURRENT hospitalizations were up slightly today from 138 to 143 persons, still higher than any time since the winter surge.
ICU Bed Availability was down shockingly today from 24% to only 18%, in the yellow danger zone and lower than anytime since January 29.
Ventilator Availability was also down today from 54% to 51%, lower than anytime since Feb. 4.
TOTAL Hospitalized – The County’s Monday-Friday dashboard shows an intake/discharge total of CURRENTLY hospitalized cases (above), but never reports on the TOTAL hospitalized over the course of the pandemic. That total must be independently discovered in the County’s occasional update of the Hospitalizations by Age Group chart. The County did not update its Hospitalizations by Age Group chart today. The Age Group chart shows a total of 2,056 persons hospitalized since the beginning of the outbreak, in the following age groups:
| Age Group | Hospitalizations | % of Total |
| 0-17 | 36 | 2% |
| 18-49 | 585 | 28% |
| 50-64 | 549 | 27% |
| 65+ | 886 | 43% |
| TOTAL | 2,056 | 100% |
Hospitalizations are also recorded on the County’s demographic chart labeled “Hospitalizations by Race / Ethnicity.” The chart was not updated today. Here are the current numbers and percentages. Interestingly, the total doesn’t square with the total by age groups.
| Race / Ethnicity | Hospitalizations | % of Total |
| Asians | 323 | 17% |
| Black / African American | 336 | 17% |
| Hispanic / Latinx | 555 | 29% |
| White | 631 | 33% |
| Multirace / Others | 84 | 4% |
| TOTAL | 1,919 | 100% |
Benicia City Council voted last week to move forward tomorrow, Tues. Aug. 24, in consideration of a Citywide indoors mask mandate for all public places. Agenda here. If the City moves forward with the mandate tomorrow, it will be the first Solano city to take action despite the County’s lack of strong guidance on masks. In the Bay Area, Solano County REMAINS the only holdout against even RECOMMENDING masks in public indoors spaces. Hopefully, Dr. Matyas will learn from Benicia, and make the necessary difficult decisions. [sta_anchor id=”breaking” /]
“Breakthrough” numbers are small in comparison to the huge surge in cases and hospitalizations among the unvaccinated, but it’s still a significant new factor. We were just beginning to associate more freely with fully vaccinated friends and family, and now we understand that a small percentage of the vaccinated among us may be asymptomatic and unknowingly transmitting the virus, and inevitably helping spread the disease to someone who knows someone, who knows someone else, who knows yet another someone who is not vaccinated, or who is too young or too health-compromised to be vaccinated – and who may end up seriously ill or even dead! Please mask indoors in public now, and maybe even indoors with vaccinated family and friends! And PLEASE talk to anyone you know who isn’t vaccinated. This thing ain’t over yet!
Dear Mayor Young, Vice Mayor Campbell, and Council Members Strawbridge, Largaespada and Macenski:
I am writing to urge that:
I am not a health professional. But as a concerned Benician, it seems clear that the indoor mask mandate will help save Benicians’ health and conceivably even their lives.
So, please adopt the strongest policy possible. If you reject the mandate, your legacy could well be, “They voted for Covid.”
Sincerely,
Stephen Golub
Benicia resident Stephen Golub offers excellent perspective on his blog, A Promised Land: Politics. Policy. America as a Developing Country.
To access his other posts or subscribe, please go to his blog site, A Promised Land.
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