Category Archives: Covid 19

Benicia CA, Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Coronavirus, Covid 19, Delta variant, Hospitalizations, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Department, Vaccine

Solano County reports nearly 500 new infections, over 1,000 active cases, fewer ICU beds available

By Roger Straw, Friday, August 27, 2021

Friday, August 27: Solano reports 471 (!) new infections today, 1,089 active cases, ICU beds becoming scarce.  Benicia indoors masking ordinance is ordered.

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

DEATHS: No new deaths were reported today.  Total Solano deaths over the course of the pandemic remains at 266.

CASES: The County reported  a whopping 471 new COVID over the last 2 days, 236 per day, our highest since February 1. 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 13.4% of total cases, the second such jump this week.  The percentage of youth cases 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 1,089 ACTIVE cases is up from Wednesday’s 904, and alarmingly up from 212 on July 2, and in the range we experienced during the horrific surge last winter.

POSITIVE TEST RATE:  Our 7-day average percent positivity rate was 16.0% today, down a bit from 17.4% Wednesday, but twice the purple tier margin, still almost 4 times today’s California rate of 4.2% and nearly 1.5 times today’s U.S. rate of 11.1%. [Source: Johns Hopkins]  WARNING: The Delta Variant is here in Solano County and spreading fast.  Time to mask up again – watch out and take care!  
Hospitalizations

CURRENT hospitalizations were down slightly today from 147 to 142 persons, but still higher than any time since the winter surge.

ICU Bed Availability was down to a shocking low today of only 11% of ICU beds available today, in the yellow danger zone and nearing red.  We’ve not seen rates this low since January 2021.

Ventilator Availability was down slightly today from 58% to 57%, and also 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 2 new hospitalizations, 1 age 50-64, and 1 over 65 – a total of 2,086 persons hospitalized since the beginning of the outbreak.

The Hospitalizations by Race / Ethnicity chart also shows  2 new hospitalizations today, 1 Asian, and 1 White – a total of 1,954 persons hospitalized since the beginning of the outbreak.  Interestingly, the total doesn’t square with the total by age groups.

Face Coverings… Good News in Benicia

GOOD NEWS!  Last week, Benicia City Council passed a citywide indoors mask mandate. The Council heard opposition from Dr. Bela Matyas, and support from Dr. Bonnie Hamilton.  The public spoke 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. 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.  The mask resolution, a press release, 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, but all reports are that he intends not to do so. 

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!

Cases by City on Friday, August 27:
  • Benicia added 16 new cases today, a total of 1,240 cases since the outbreak began, 4.5% of its population of 27,570.  Benicia remains in the CDC’s HIGH transmission level with 35 new cases in the last 7 days.
  • Dixon added 29 new cases today, total of 2,223 cases, 11.2% of its population of 19,794.
  • Fairfield added 107 new cases today, total of 10,790 cases, 9.2% of its population of 117,149.
  • Rio Vista added 8 new cases today, total of 496 cases, 5.3% of its population of 9,416.
  • Suisun City added 39 new cases today, total of 2,815 cases, 9.5% of its population of 29,447.
  • Vacaville added 136 new cases today, a total of 10,385 cases, 10.5% its of population of 98,807.
  • Vallejo added 135 new cases today, a total of 11,728 cases, 9.8% of its population of 119,544.
  • Unincorporated added 1 new case today, a total of 123 cases (population figures not available).

Continue reading Solano County reports nearly 500 new infections, over 1,000 active cases, fewer ICU beds available →

Benicia City Council, Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Coronavirus, Covid 19, Mandatory face coverings, Tom Campbell

Benicia will review mask mandate in 6 weeks – here’s how

Benicia COVID cases have risen to the CDC’s most dangerous “High Transmission level” since August 11 – well over the CDC’s “Substantial Transmission level.”

By Roger Straw, August 27, 2021  [UPDATED – note new information about the requirement of 30 days below substantial transmission level.]

Benicia’s new mask mandate refers to the CDC transmission levels as its standard for reviewing whether to continue the mask mandate.

The mandate will remain in place for 6 weeks, after which Council will review the order (on October 5).  The order will “remain in effect until the City is not in a substantial or high transmission of COVID 19 as defined by the CDC for a thirty-day period.” (From Resolution 21-88, adopted August 24)

The CDC’s formula for calculating level of transmission looks complicated, but it’s actually rather simple.  First, here is the CDC’s complicated presentation.  I’ll simplify after that….

TABLE. CDC core indicators of and thresholds for community transmission levels of SARS-CoV-2
Indicator Transmission level
Low Moderate Substantial High
New cases per 100,000 persons in the past 7 days* 0–9.99 10.00–49.99 50.00–99.99 ≥100.00
Percentage of positive nucleic acid amplification tests in the past 7 days† <5.00 5.00–7.99 8.00–9.99 ≥10.00

* Number of new cases in the county (or other administrative level) in the past 7 days divided by the population in the county (or other administrative level) multiplied by 100,000.
† Number of positive tests in the county (or other administrative level) during the past 7 days divided by the total number of tests performed in the county (or other administrative level) during the past 7 days. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/lab/resources/calculating-percent-positivity.html

In the Benicia City Council discussions, only new cases per 100,000 was mentioned as a factor for review (unless I missed something).  Councilmember Tom Campbell did the math on the spot, and indicated that Benicia’s number would be 13 cases (later amended to 14) over the last 7 days.

Simply put, >>based on our population, when the County reports 14 or more new Benicia cases over the last 7 days, the CDC classifies us as having a level of “substantial transmission.”  If we see 28 cases over the last 7 days we are in an area of “high transmission.”  The mask mandate will continue until we have been below 14 new cases per week for at least 30 days.

The bad news… Here is a chart showing Benicia’s 7-day case levels per 100K over the past several weeks.  Clearly, we have been in Substantial or High since mid-July.

Solano County COVID-19 Dashboard – ARCHIVE
https://doitgis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=055f81e9fe154da5860257e3f2489d67 
Date Total Confirmed Cases, Solano County Δ Total Confirmed Cases, Benicia Δ Cases previous 7 days per 100K  (CDC Substantial: Benicia 14+)
Wednesday, June 16, 2021 33,651 15 1,010 3 8
Thursday, June 17, 2021 33,673 22 1,012 2 9
Friday, June 18, 2021 33,707 34 1,015 3 12
Monday, June 21, 2021 33,762 55 1,017 2 11
Wednesday, June 23, 2021 33,797 35 1,021 4 11
Friday, June 25, 2021 33,846 49 1,025 4 10
Monday, June 28, 2021 33,898 52 1,029 4 12
Wednesday, June 30, 2021 33,973 75 1,029 0 8
Friday, July 2, 2021 34,044 71 1,030 1 5
Tuesday, July 6, 2021 34,149 105 1,038 8 9
Friday, July 9, 2021 34240 91 1,040 2 11
Monday, July 12, 2021 34377 137 1,045 5 15
Wednesday, July 14, 2021 34461 84 1,048 3 10
Friday, July 16, 2021 34630 169 1,056 8 16
Monday, July 19, 2021 34761 131 1,062 6 17
Wednesday, July 21, 2021 34885 124 1,070 8 22
Friday, July 23, 2021 35193 308 1,084 14 28
Monday, July 26, 2021 35482 289 1,092 8 30
Wednesday, July 28, 2021 35703 221 1,102 10 32
Friday, July 30, 2021 36004 301 1,110 8 26
Monday, August 2, 2021 36249 245 1,115 5 23
Wednesday, August 4, 2021 36525 276 1,125 10 23
Friday, August 6, 2021 36848 323 1,132 7 22
Monday, August 9, 2021 37056 208 1,141 9 26
Wednesday, August 11, 2021 37350 294 1,153 12 28
Friday, August 13, 2021 37664 314 1,167 14 35
Monday, August 16, 2021 37914 250 1,177 10 36
Wednesday, August 18, 2021 38294 380 1,187 10 34
Friday, August 20, 2021 38764 470 1,205 18 38
Monday, August 23, 2021 39002 238 1,216 11 39
Wednesday, August 25, 2021 39329 327 1,224 8 37
More CDC Resources:
Benicia CA, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Delta variant, Hospitalizations, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Department, Vaccine

Solano reports 327 new infections today, 2 new deaths, 904 ACTIVE cases.  Benicia passes masking ordinance!

By Roger Straw, Wednesday, August 25, 2021

Wednesday, August 25: Solano reports 327 new infections today, 2 new deaths, 904 ACTIVE cases.  Benicia passes masking ordinance!

Solano County COVID dashboard SUMMARY:
[Sources: see below.  See also my ARCHIVE spreadsheet of daily Solano COVID updates.]

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.

Percentage of cases by age groups. Click to enlarge.

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.

POSITIVE TEST RATE:  Our 7-day average percent positivity rate was 17.4% today, up from 15.7% Monday, over twice the purple tier margin, and about 4 times today’s California rate of 4.4% and over 1.5 times today’s U.S. rate of 11.1%. [Source: Johns Hopkins]  WARNING: The Delta Variant is here in Solano County and spreading fast.  Time to mask up again – watch out and take care!  
Hospitalizations

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%
Face Coverings… Good News in Benicia

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. 

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!

Cases by City on Wednesday, August 25:
  • Benicia added 8 new cases today, a total of 1,224 cases since the outbreak began, 4.4% of its population of 27,570.
  • Dixon added 25 new cases today, total of 2,194 cases, 11.1% of its population of 19,794.
  • Fairfield added 87 new cases today, total of 10,683 cases, 9.1% of its population of 117,149.
  • Rio Vista added 13 new cases today, total of 488 cases, 5.2% of its population of 9,416.
  • Suisun City added 23 new cases today, total of 2,776 cases, 9.4% of its population of 29,447.
  • Vacaville added 74 new cases today, a total of 10,249 cases, 10.4% its of population of 98,807.
  • Vallejo added 97 new cases today, a total of 11,593 cases, 9.7% of its population of 119,544.
  • Unincorporated remained steady today, a total of 122 cases (population figures not available).

Continue reading Solano reports 327 new infections today, 2 new deaths, 904 ACTIVE cases.  Benicia passes masking ordinance! →

Coronavirus, Covid 19, Delta variant, Superspreader

Stay away from South Dakota! Covid cases quintuple after Sturgis motorcycle rally

Meade County, home to Sturgis, has had a more than 1,500 percent increase in cases in the past 14 days.

Motorcycle enthusiasts attend the 81st annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally on Aug. 8, 2021, in Sturgis, S.D.
Motorcycle enthusiasts attend the 81st annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally on Aug. 8, 2021, in Sturgis, S.D. | Scott Olson / Getty Images file
NBC News, By Ben Kesslen and Joe Murphy, Aug. 25, 2021

Two weeks after the annual motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, reported Covid infections in the state have risen nearly sixfold.

South Dakota counted 3,819 new cases in the past two weeks, including seven deaths, up from 644 cases in the 14 days preceding it. That makes it the state with the largest percent increase in Covid cases in the past two weeks.

The state’s rate of Covid-19 infections per capita in the past two weeks is in the bottom half of the country, but it’s the sharp and sudden increase in case counts that sets it apart.

Meade County, home to Sturgis, has counted 330 new cases in the last two weeks, up from the 20 reported in the two weeks before the rally, according to Johns Hopkins University’s case count. The 1,550 percent increase comes after the motorcycle rally, which usually draws around half a million people, possibly had its biggest year ever, according to County Sheriff Ron Merwin.

Dr. Shankar Kurra, the vice president of medical affairs at Monument Health, which operates hospitals serving western South Dakota, including one in Sturgis, said the events at this year’s rally feel like “a replay of last year.”

In June, Monument Health had three Covid patients, a pandemic low for hospitalizations, and Kurra said he thought that number might drop to zero. Now, the number is up to 58, about half of what it was at its peak in the winter. The people in the hospital are younger and “almost 99.9% are unvaccinated,” he said.

“It’s not the highest it has ever been but is definitely at a number that puts us at a disadvantage,” Kurra said. “You have a strain on resources and a lot of stress on the health system to give timely care to non-Covid patients.”

Thousands flock to Sturgis motorcycle rally despite concerns over delta variant

It’s too soon to know if the Sturgis rally, which began on Aug. 6 and ended Aug. 15, had a direct effect on the increase or can be classified as a “superspreader” event, but Meade County is now reporting a 36 percent positivity rate, with about 1 in every 3 Covid tests returning a positive result. The 82 cases the county reported Tuesday was its highest daily number yet, eclipsing the 68 cases it reported on Aug. 27, 2020. (Meade County has reported 3,168 cases and 31 deaths since the start of the pandemic, one of the lowest Covid case counts, when adjusted for population, among the state’s 66 counties).

From the onset of the pandemic, South Dakota has seen a higher per capita rate of infections than all but two states, North Dakota and Tennessee, per an NBC News tally.

Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican, has been firm in keeping South Dakota open throughout the pandemic, shunning mask mandates, criticizing public health officials like Dr. Anthony Fauci, and insisting on holding mass gatherings against CDC recommendations. On Monday, after the Food and Drug Administration granted full approval to Pfizer-BioNTech’s two-dose Covid-19 vaccine for people ages 16 and up, the governor tweeted that if President Joe Biden “illegally mandates vaccines, I will take every action available under the law to protect South Dakotans from the federal government.” Currently, 48.4 percent of South Dakota is fully vaccinated, according to an NBC News tally.

In an email Tuesday, a South Dakota Department of Health spokesperson, Daniel Bucheli, said the spikes in Covid cases in the state “are following a national trend being experienced in every state.”

“Regarding cases surrounding the Sturgis Rally, our Department has only been able to link 16 cases directly to this event,” Bucheli said. “It is important to mention that Meade county currently has a lower vaccination rate than other counties in SD.”

For safe and healthy communities…