Category Archives: Covid 19

#wearamask, Benicia CA, Benicia City Council, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Face coverings, Hospitalizations, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Department, Vaccine, Vaccine mandate

SOLANO: 74 new COVID infections, larger than usual number age 65+

NOTE: The information below is not the latest.  CLICK HERE for today’s latest information.
By Roger Straw, Friday, November 5, 2021  [Note:  Be aware that the Benicia City Council may weaken its mask mandate on Nov. 16 – click here to scroll down.  – R.S.]

Friday, November 5: Solano County reports 74 new infections since Wednesday, remains in SUBSTANTIAL rate of transmission. Solano Public Health has not updated the public on COVID hospitalization details (age and race) since October 15.

Solano County COVID dashboard SUMMARY:
[Sources: see below.]

DEATHS: Solano reported no new COVID-related deaths today.  The County reported 27 COVID deaths in September, 18 in October, and none since October 18.  A total of 315 Solano residents have died of COVID or COVID-related causes over the course of the pandemic.

CASES: The County reported 74 new COVID cases since Wednesday. AGES: 13 of these 85 cases were youth and children under 18.  32 were age 18-49, 12 were age 50-64, and 17 were 65+.  Today’s report of 17 seniors (8.5 per day) represents an upward tic: over the previous 4 weeks new cases among seniors averaged only 4.75 per day.

COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION RATE: Over the last 7 days, Solano has seen SUBSTANTIAL community transmission, with 261 new cases (down from 350 on Wednesday).  CDC FORMULA: Based on Solano County’s population, 450 cases in 7 days would move Solano up into the CDC’s population-based definition of a HIGH transmission rate, and we will need to drop below 225 cases in 7 days to rate as having only MODERATE community transmission.

ACTIVE CASES: Solano’s 394 ACTIVE cases is down slightly from Wednesday’s 396, and still far above our summer rates.

CASES BY CITY on Friday, November 5:

  • Benicia added 4 new cases today, a total of 1,547 cases since the outbreak began.  Benicia dropped into the MODERATE range of community transmission with ONLY 12 new cases over the last 7 days. (MODERATE is defined as less than 14 cases, based on Benicia population – SEE CHART BELOW).  Benicia will need to maintain fewer than 14 new cases per 7 days for 30 consecutive days before relaxing the mask mandate.  [Note above that Solano County is currently experiencing SUBSTANTIAL transmission.

  • Dixon added 6 new cases today, total of 2,556 cases.
  • Fairfield added 15 new cases today, total of 12,326 cases.
  • Rio Vista reported at 1 new case today, total of 614 cases.
  • Suisun City added 6 new cases today, total of 3,254 cases.
  • Vacaville added 23 new cases today, a total of 12,104 cases.
  • Vallejo added 19 new cases today, a total of 13,442 cases.
  • Unincorporated added 0 new cases today, a total of 140 cases.

POSITIVE TEST RATE:  Solano’s 7-day percent positivity rate was 4.8% today, down from Wednesday’s 5.5%.  COMPARE: Today’s California rate is 1.8%.  [Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Center]  Today’s U.S. rate is 4.89%. [Source: CDC COVID Data Tracker.]

HOSPITALIZATIONS:

CURRENT hospitalizations were up today from 32 to 35 persons, but still far above the range we saw during last summer.

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.  The County did not update its hospitalizations charts again today.  Solano Public Health has not informed the public on COVID hospitalizations since October 15!  Total COVID hospitalizations in Solano remain at 2,838 since the beginning of the outbreak.

ICU Bed Availability is 30% today, up from only 22% on Wednesday, remaining in the YELLOW danger zone.  We remain in the worrisome range we saw during last winter’s surge.

Ventilator Availability today rose from 64% to 67%.

ALERT! Benicia’s mask mandate may be weakened by City Council on Nov 16

On Tuesday, October 19, Benicia City Council reviewed our CDC-defined 7-day community transmission rate for September-October, which has yet to dip below the SUBSTANTIAL level.  Because of this poor data and according to City Resolution 21-88, Council left in place Benicia’s citywide indoors mask mandate for now.  The mandate went into effect on August 24 and includes everyone 4 years old and up when indoors in public places, even those of us who are vaccinated.  On Oct. 19, Councilmember Largaespada convinced other Councilmembers and staff to bring consideration of amending the mandate back to Council on November 16.  Largaespada suggested amendments that could weaken the mandate with various exceptions, possibly including no indoor mask requirements in restaurants, bars and gyms.  Largaespada would “Limit the mask mandate to the most essential businesses in town.”  He added that groceries, pharmacies, banks and City Hall might be considered essential.

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.  Recent 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.

Sources
#wearamask, Benicia CA, Benicia City Council, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Face coverings, Hospitalizations, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Department, Vaccine, Vaccine mandate

Solano County reports 102 new infections over last weekend, 85 more today

NOTE: The information below is not the latest.  CLICK HERE for today’s latest information.
By Roger Straw, Wednesday, November 3, 2021  [Note:  Monday’s Solano dashboard did not report details on cases by city and by age, but I was able to get them directly by email. Today’s numbers take account of the previously missing data.  Complete numbers for Monday can be found on my ARCHIVE of daily Solano COVID updates (an excel spreadsheet).  ANOTHER NOTE:  Be aware that the Benicia City Council may weaken its mask mandate on Nov. 16 – click here to scroll down.  – R.S.]

Wednesday, November 3: Solano County reports 85 new infections since Monday, remains in SUBSTANTIAL rate of transmission. Solano Public Health has not updated the public on COVID hospitalization details since October 15.

Solano County COVID dashboard SUMMARY:
[Sources: see below.]

DEATHS: Solano reported no new COVID-related deaths today.  The County reported 27 COVID deaths in September, 18 in October.  A total of 315 Solano residents have died of COVID or COVID-related causes over the course of the pandemic.

CASES: The County reported 85 new COVID cases since Monday. AGES: 17 of these 85 cases were youth and children under 18.  44 were age 18-49, 17 were age 50-64, and 7 were 65+.

COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION RATE: Over the last 7 days, Solano has seen SUBSTANTIAL community transmission, with 350 new cases (up from 321 on Monday).  CDC FORMULA: Based on Solano County’s population, 450 cases in 7 days would move Solano up into the CDC’s population-based definition of a HIGH transmission rate, and we will need to drop below 225 cases in 7 days to rate as having only MODERATE community transmission.

ACTIVE CASES: Solano’s 396 ACTIVE cases, up substantially from Monday’s 284, and still far above our summer rates.

CASES BY CITY on Wednesday, November 3:

  • Benicia added only 2 new cases today, a total of 1,543 cases since the outbreak began.  Benicia remains in the SUBSTANTIAL range of community transmission with 20 new cases over the last 7 days. (SUBSTANTIAL is defined as 14 or more cases, based on Benicia population – SEE CHART BELOW).  Benicia will need to maintain fewer than 14 new cases per 7 days for 30 consecutive days before relaxing the mask mandate.  [Note above that Solano County is currently experiencing SUBSTANTIAL transmission.

  • Dixon added 7 new cases today, total of 2,550 cases.
  • Fairfield added 21 new cases today, total of 12,311 cases.
  • Rio Vista reported at 1 new case today, total of 613 cases.
  • Suisun City added 0 new cases today, total of 3,248 cases.
  • Vacaville added 33 new cases today, a total of 12,081 cases.
  • Vallejo added 21 new cases today, a total of 13,423 cases.
  • Unincorporated added 0 new cases today, a total of 140 cases.

POSITIVE TEST RATE:  Solano’s 7-day percent positivity rate was 5.5% today, up slightly from Monday’s 5.4%.  COMPARE: Today’s California rate is 1.8%.  [Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Center]  Today’s U.S. rate is 4.85%. [Source: CDC COVID Data Tracker.]

HOSPITALIZATIONS:

CURRENT hospitalizations were down today from 36 to 32 persons, but still far above the range we saw during last summer.

ICU Bed Availability is only 22% today, down from 33% on Monday, and back in the YELLOW danger zone.  We remain in the worrisome range we saw during last winter’s surge.

Ventilator Availability today fell from 68% to 64%. 

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.  The County did not update its hospitalizations charts again today.  Solano Public Health has not informed the public on COVID hospitalizations since October 15!  Total COVID hospitalizations in Solano remain at 2,838 since the beginning of the outbreak.

ALERT! Benicia’s mask mandate may be weakened by City Council on Nov 16

On Tuesday, October 19, Benicia City Council reviewed our CDC-defined 7-day community transmission rate for September-October, which has yet to dip below the SUBSTANTIAL level.  Because of this poor data and according to City Resolution 21-88, Council left in place Benicia’s citywide indoors mask mandate for now.  The mandate went into effect on August 24 and includes everyone 4 years old and up when indoors in public places, even those of us who are vaccinated.  On Oct. 19, Councilmember Largaespada convinced other Councilmembers and staff to bring consideration of amending the mandate back to Council on November 16.  Largaespada suggested amendments that could weaken the mandate with various exceptions, possibly including no indoor mask requirements in restaurants, bars and gyms.  Largaespada would “Limit the mask mandate to the most essential businesses in town.”  He added that groceries, pharmacies, banks and City Hall might be considered essential.

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.  Recent 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.

Sources
Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Community transmission rate, Coronavirus, Covid 19, San Francisco Bay Area, Solano County CA, Sonoma County

Entire Bay Area is back in CDC’s orange and red tiers for COVID spread, Solano & Sonoma only counties in red

Entire Bay Area is back in CDC’s orange and red tiers for COVID spread

San Francisco Chronicle, by Kellie Hwang, Nov. 2, 2021
Piper Lind wears a mask and decorated costume while welcoming masked customers to Cliff’s Variety on Castro Street in San Francisco on Wednesday, Oct. 6. Jessica Christian/The Chronicle

The entire Bay Area has returned to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s orange “substantial” and red “high” categories of coronavirus transmission — a step backward for some counties, like Marin and San Francisco, where transmission was previously classified as yellow, or “moderate.”

This comes after Marin County lifted its indoor mask mandate on Monday after reaching key COVID-19 benchmarks agreed upon by eight Bay Area counties. However, the mandate is unlikely to be immediately reinstated; the county’s health officer Matt Willis said last week that an increase in cases alone will not determine whether masks come back; rather he will watch hospitalization numbers, which as of Friday were at a four-month low.

San Francisco had reached the “moderate” level last week, but reverted to “substantial” on Tuesday.

The entire Bay Area has returned to the CDC's orange 'substantial' and red 'high' categories of transmission.
The entire Bay Area has returned to the CDC’s orange ‘substantial’ and red ‘high’ categories of transmission. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Under a framework agreed to by eight Bay Area counties, a county may lift its indoor mask mandate for fully vaccinated people when: 1) its vaccination rate reaches at least 80% or enough time has passed that children 5-11 years old can be fully vaccinated; 2) the county has been in the CDC’s yellow “moderate” level of community transmission for at least three weeks — with tiers defined by case rates and positive test rates; and 3) hospitalization rates remain low.

Four counties — Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco and Sonoma — have already eased some rules, allowing fully vaccinated people to go without masks in certain indoor settings including gyms, offices and college classrooms. But masks remain mandatory in shops, restaurants and bars in those counties.

Masks remain optional for vaccinated people in Solano County, the only part of the Bay Area not to reinstate a mask mandate.

In recent weeks, the rate of new coronavirus cases per day has been under 10 per 100,000 people in most Bay Area counties — a rate not seen since mid- to late July, after the delta variant became the dominant strain in California and drove a new surge in cases.

Santa Clara and Marin counties were the first to consistently drop below 10 cases per 100,000, on Sept. 24, and Solano County was the latest, on Oct. 16. Only Sonoma’s case rate is over 10, having trended upward since the beginning of last week. The overall Bay Area case rate is 8.2 cases per 100,000, compared to the statewide case rate that is nearly double that, at 14.34.

At the same time, case rates have largely plateaued in the Bay Area’s counties, much as they have across California, which raises questions about what might happen as we approach the busy holiday season that will increase travel and send people indoors.

Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert with UCSF, said he doesn’t suspect Halloween will result in a significant uptick in cases because it is “generally a local event, and with high vaccination rates not just in adults, but in adolescents in the Bay Area,” which creates a wall of immunity around younger children.

He said there could be a small uptick in cases during the holidays due to travel to areas with higher transmission rates; waning vaccine immunity; and a more substantial flu season that could increase people’s susceptibility to COVID-19.

“I don’t think this plateau will lead to a surge remotely close to what we saw last winter,” Chin-Hong wrote in an email. “With the approval of vaccines in children 5-11, this will further boost community immunity to keep cases down.”

Here is where each Bay Area county stands on COVID metrics and the mask mandate criteria as of Nov. 2.

Note: The 7-day average case rates are from Nov. 1 and come from state data. The weekly new cases per 100,000 over the past seven days and positive test rates are from the CDC.

#wearamask, Benicia CA, Benicia City Council, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Face coverings, Hospitalizations, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Department, Vaccine, Vaccine mandate

Solano County COVID update – missing data on 102 new infections

NOTE: The information below is not the latest.  CLICK HERE for today’s latest information.
By Roger Straw, Monday, November 1, 2021  [Note: Benicia City Council may weaken mask mandate on Nov. 16 – click here to scroll down.  – R.S.]

Monday, November 1: Solano County reports 102 new infections over the weekend, remains in SUBSTANTIAL rate of transmission.  City, age and race data missing from today’s Solano Public Health update.

Solano County COVID dashboard SUMMARY:
[Sources: see below.]

DEATHS: Solano reported no new COVID-related deaths today.  The County reported 27 COVID deaths in September, 18 in October.  A total of 315 Solano residents have died of COVID or COVID-related causes over the course of the pandemic.

CASES: The County reported 102 new COVID cases since Friday.  Normally, the County reports age and race data on these new cases, but the numbers were not updated today.
……LATER INFO FROM SOLANO PUBLIC HEALTH via email:

Age Group Number %*
0-17 yrs 6584 14.4
18-49 yrs 25211 55
50-64 yrs 8861 19.3
65+ yrs 5155 11.2
TOTAL: 45824

COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION RATE: Over the last 7 days, Solano has seen SUBSTANTIAL community transmission, with 321 new cases (down from 324 on Friday).  CDC FORMULA: Based on Solano County’s population, 450 cases in 7 days would move Solano up into the CDC’s population-based definition of a HIGH transmission rate, and we will need to drop below 225 cases in 7 days to rate as having only MODERATE community transmission.

ACTIVE CASES: Solano’s 284 ACTIVE cases, down substantially from Friday’s 410, but still far above our summer rates.

CASES BY CITY on Monday, November 1:  [SOLANO DATA  NOT  UPDATED  TODAY]
……LATER INFO FROM SOLANO PUBLIC HEALTH via email:

City of Residence Number
Benicia 1541
Dixon 2543
Fairfield 12290
Rio Vista 612
Suisun City 3248
Vacaville 12048
Vallejo 13402
Unincorporated 140

POSITIVE TEST RATE:  Solano’s 7-day percent positivity rate was 5.4% today, up slightly from Friday’s 5.3%.  COMPARE: Today’s California rate is 2.0%.  [Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Center]  Today’s U.S. rate is 5.28%. [Source: CDC COVID Data Tracker.]

HOSPITALIZATIONS:

CURRENT hospitalizations were up slightly today from 34 to 36 persons, and still far above the range we saw during last summer.

ICU Bed Availability is at 33% today, up from 29% on Friday, and in the GREEN zone.  We remain in the worrisome range we saw during last winter’s surge.

Ventilator Availability today rose substantially from only 51% to 68% – good news! 

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.  The County did not update its hospitalizations charts today.  Total COVID hospitalizations in Solano remain at 2,838 since the beginning of the outbreak.

ALERT! Benicia’s mask mandate may be weakened by City Council on Nov 16

On Tuesday, October 19, Benicia City Council reviewed our CDC-defined 7-day community transmission rate for September-October, which has yet to dip below the SUBSTANTIAL level.  Because of this poor data and according to City Resolution 21-88, Council left in place Benicia’s citywide indoors mask mandate for now.  The mandate went into effect on August 24 and includes everyone 4 years old and up when indoors in public places, even those of us who are vaccinated.  On Oct. 19, Councilmember Largaespada convinced other Councilmembers and staff to bring consideration of amending the mandate back to Council on November 16.  Largaespada suggested amendments that could weaken the mandate with various exceptions, possibly including no indoor mask requirements in restaurants, bars and gyms.  Largaespada would “Limit the mask mandate to the most essential businesses in town.”  He added that groceries, pharmacies, banks and City Hall might be considered essential.

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.  Recent 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.

Sources