Category Archives: Delta variant

Benicia CA, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Delta variant, Hospitalizations, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Department, Vaccine

Solano County reports shocking new numbers on Wednesday July 28

By Roger Straw, Wednesday, July 28, 2021

County reports 4 deaths and 710 new hospitalizations!  Test positivity nears 20%.

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

Solano reported four new deaths today, two age 50-64 and two 65+.  June deaths were only 2, and prior to today only 1 death was reported in July, so this is a dramatic turn.  The County total is now 249 deaths since the pandemic began.

TREND: Cases-per-day dramatically up in July

Solano County is clearly experiencing a “summer surge” in cases.  The County reported  221 new COVID cases since Monday, 110 per day!  Cases-per-day were trending downward in recent months, but are now rising rapidly, especially over the last week:

Solano’s 831 ACTIVE cases is up dramatically from last Friday’s remarkable high of 647, higher than anything since February 11, 2021.  Active cases have risen alarmingly in July, up from 212 cases on July 2 to today’s 831.

Solano Positive Test Rate INCREDIBLY HIGH – much higher than US & CA!

Our 7-day average percent positivity rate was up alarmingly again today from a shocking 16.8% on Monday to an even more surprising 19.1% today, the County’s highest rate since January 25, 2021.  We would be decidedly back in the PURPLE TIER with rates this high.  COMPARE: The US 7-day % positive rate today is at 5.9%, and the California rate is 4.4%. [Source: Johns Hopkins]  This thing is on fire here – watch out and take care!

Hospitalizations – County provides MAJOR update of previously unreported hospitalizations

CURRENT hospitalizations jumped today from 45 to 51 persons.   ICU beds and ventilators remained about the same today, beds at 32% and ventilators at 68.

TOTAL hospitalized – The County’s Monday-Friday updates show an intake/discharge total of CURRENTLY hospitalized cases, but never report on the CUMULATIVE TOTAL of hospitalized COVID patients 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 performed a MAJOR UPDATE of the Hospitalizations by Age Group chart today, adding 710 previously unreported hospitalizations!  We now know of

    • 9 more children age 0-17 who were hospitalized with COVID since the County’s end-of-June update;
    • 253 additional young adults age 18-49;
    • another 200 aged 50-64;
    • and 248 more of our elders 65 and older.

No telling exactly WHEN these newly reported hospitalizations occurred – probably not all in July.  The Age Group chart now shows a total of 2,019 persons hospitalized since the beginning of the outbreak, in the following age groups:

Age Group Hospitalizations % of Total
0-17 36 2%
18-49 580 29%
50-64 542 27%
65+ 861 43%
TOTAL 2,019 100%

Hospitalizations are also recorded on the County’s demographic chart labeled “Hospitalizations by Race / Ethnicity.”  The chart was updated today, adding 138 Asians, 127 Blacks, 221 Hispanics, 208 Whites, and subtracting 3 from the Multirace group.  Here are the current numbers.  Interestingly, the total doesn’t square with totals by age groups.

Race / Ethnicity Hospitalizations % of Total
Asians 322 17% (up 2%)
Black / African American 327 17% (up 1%)
Hispanic / Latinx 548 29% (up 2%)
White 614 32%  (down 2%)
Multirace / Others 83 4% (down 3%)
TOTAL 1,894 100%
New State Guidelines…

COVID is clearly spreading again and surging in Solano County!  Today California also issued new Guidance for the Use of Face Coverings.  The new guidelines include a recommendation for universal masking indoors statewide, adding of Adult and Senior Care Facilities to settings where all individuals must wear masks indoors, and a reference to new requirements for unvaccinated workers.  Some California counties are returning to mandatory masks for all in crowded places.  In the Bay Area, Solano County is the only holdout against even RECOMMENDING masks in public indoors spaces.  Dr. Matyas needs to make some difficult decisions soon!

SUMMER SURGE – Masks, Social Distancing & Vaccination

My personal plan is to mask indoors in public even though I’m vaccinated, and I’d recommend it for you, too.  Everyone talk to anyone you know who isn’t vaccinated.  This thing ain’t over yet!

Cases by City on Wednesday, July 28:
  • Benicia added 10 new cases today, a total of 1,102 cases since the outbreak began, 4.0% of its population of 27,570.
  • Dixon added 10 new case today, total of 2,007 cases, 10.1% of its population of 19,794.
  • Fairfield added 67 new cases today, total of 9,627 cases, 8.2% of its population of 117,149.
  • Rio Vista added 3 new cases today, total of 424 cases, 4.5% of its population of 9,416.
  • Suisun City added 25 new cases today, total of 2,512 cases, 8.5% of its population of 29,447.
  • Vacaville added 48 new cases today, a total of 9,389 cases, 9.5% its of population of 98,807.
  • Vallejo added 57 new cases today, a total of 10,533 cases, 8.8% of its population of 119,544.
  • Unincorporated added 1 new case today, a total of 109 cases (population figures not available).

COMPARE: From the most recent report on Solano County’s COVID Dashboard, Monday, July 26:

The data on this page is from today’s and the previous Solano County COVID-19 Dashboard.  The Dashboard is full of much more information and updated weekdays 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
Benicia CA, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Delta variant, Hospitalizations, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Department, Vaccine

Summer surge hitting Solano County hospitals, test positivity far surpassing US and CA rates

By Roger Straw, Monday, July 26, 2021

Solano County on Monday, July 26: 289 new COVID infections over the weekend.  Hospitalizations up dramatically.  Test positivity nears 17%!

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

Solano County reported no new deaths today.  The County total is now 245 deaths since the pandemic began.  But the County reported  289 new COVID cases over the weekend, 96 per day!  Solano is clearly experiencing a “summer surge” in cases.

TREND: Cases-per-day dramatically up in July

Cases-per-day were trending downward in recent months, but are now rising sharply, especially over the last week:

Solano’s 451 ACTIVE cases is down from Friday’s remarkable high of 647, but still higher than anything since February 19, 2021.  Active cases have risen alarmingly in just two weeks, up from 289 cases on July 12.

Test Rate INCREDIBLY HIGH – compare with US & CA

Our 7-day average percent positivity rate was up alarmingly again today from a shocking 14.9% on Friday to an even more surprising 16.8% today, the County’s highest rate since January 29, 2021.  We would be decidedly back in the PURPLE TIER with rates this high.  COMPARE: The US 7-day % positive rate today is at 5.3%, and the California rate is 3.8%. [Source: Johns Hopkins]

Hospitalizations – fewer ICU Beds and Ventilators available

CURRENT hospitalizations jumped today from 33 to 45 persons CURRENTLY hospitalized with COVID.   ICU beds available fell dramatically today from 50% to only 32%. And the County reported fewer ventilators available today, down from 80 to 69.  These numbers confirm the spike in hospitalizations, see below…

The County updates the intake/discharge total of CURRENTLY hospitalized cases with every report, but never reports on the cumulative total of hospitalized COVID patients 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 which was not updated today, and now shows a total of 1,309 persons hospitalized since the beginning of the outbreak, in the following age groups:

Age Group Hospitalizations % of Total
0-17 27 2%
18-49 327 25%
50-64 342 26%
65+ 613 47%
TOTAL 1,309 100%

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.  Interestingly, the total doesn’t square with totals by age groups.

Race / Ethnicity Hospitalizations % of Total
Asians 184 15%
Black / African American 200 16%
Hispanic / Latinx 327 27%
White 406 34%
Multirace / Others 86 7%
TOTAL 1,203 99%
SUMMER SURGE – Masks, Social Distancing & Vaccination

COVID is clearly circulating again and surging in Solano County!  Some California counties are returning to mandatory masks for all in crowded places, and today the State of California issued a policy for state employees and health care workers, requiring them to either get vaccinated or be tested weekly for the virus.  In the Bay Area, Solano County is the only holdout against even RECOMMENDING masks in public indoors spaces.  My personal plan is to mask indoors in public even though I’m vaccinated, and I’d recommend it for you, too.  This thing ain’t over yet!

Cases by City on Monday, July 26:
  • Benicia added 8 new cases today, a total of 1,092 cases since the outbreak began, 4.0% of its population of 27,570.
  • Dixon added 7 new case today, total of 1,997 cases, 10.1% of its population of 19,794.
  • Fairfield added 74 new cases today, total of 9,560 cases, 8.2% of its population of 117,149.
  • Rio Vista added 4 new cases today, total of 421 cases, 4.5% of its population of 9,416.
  • Suisun City added 38 new cases today, total of 2,487 cases, 8.4% of its population of 29,447.
  • Vacaville added 82 new cases today, a total of 9,341 cases, 9.5% its of population of 98,807.
  • Vallejo added 76 new cases today, a total of 10,476 cases, 8.8% of its population of 119,544.
  • Unincorporated remained steady today, a total of 108 cases (population figures not available).

COMPARE: From the most recent report on Solano County’s COVID Dashboard, Friday, July 23:

The data on this page is from today’s and the previous Solano County COVID-19 Dashboard.  The Dashboard is full of much more information and updated weekdays 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
Coronavirus, Coronavirus variant, Covid 19, Delta variant, Face coverings, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Department, Vaccine

States scale back virus reporting just as cases surge

[BenIndy Editor: Here in Solano County, our Public Health Department scaled back on virus reporting a month ago, on June 23.  Solano now updates its COVID-19 Dashboard only on Mon., Wed. and Fri..  Previously, the dashboard was updated 5 days a week M-F.  – R.S.]

In this Jan. 11, 2021 file photo, Nebraska Gov. Pete Rickets points to vaccination statistics during a news conference in Lincoln, Neb. Several states scaled back their reporting on COVID-19 in July 2021, just as cases across the country tripled with the delta variant of the virus spreading quickly among the unvaccinated. The shift to weekly instead of daily reporting in Florida, Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota was also accompanied by less detail about the virus in Florida and Nebraska, and some officials described the move as part of a return to normal. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)
Vallejo Times-Herald, By Josh Funk, The Associated Press, July 25, 2021

OMAHA,NEB.>> Several states scaled back their reporting of COVID-19 statistics this month just as cases across the country started to skyrocket, depriving the public of real-time information on outbreaks, cases, hospitalizations and deaths in their communities.

The shift to weekly instead of daily reporting in Florida, Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota marked a notable shift during a pandemic in which coronavirus dashboards have become a staple for Americans closely tracking case counts and trends to navigate a crisis that has killed more than 600,000 people in the U.S.

In Nebraska, the state actually stopped reporting on the virus altogether for two weeks after Gov. Pete Ricketts declared an end to the official virus emergency, forcing news reporters to file public records requests or turn to national websites that track state data to learn about COVID statistics. The state backtracked two weeks later and came up with a weekly site that provides some basic numbers.

Other governments have gone the other direction and released more information, with Washington, D.C., this week adding a dashboard on breakthrough cases to show the number of residents who contracted the virus after getting vaccines. Many states have recently gone to reporting virus numbers only on weekdays.

When Florida changed the frequency of its virus reporting earlier this month, officials said it made sense given the decreasing number of cases and the increasing number of people being vaccinated.

Cases started soaring soon after, and Florida earlier this week made up up one-fifth of the country’s new coronavirus infections. As a result, Florida’s weekly releases — typically done on Friday afternoons — have consequences for the country’s understanding of the current summer surge, with no statewide COVID stats coming out of the virus hotspot for six days a week.

In Florida’s last two weekly reports, the number of new cases shot up from 23,000 to 45,000 and then 73,000 on Friday, an average of more than 10,000 day. Hospitals are starting to run out of space in parts of the state. With cases rising, Democrats and other critics have urged state officials and Gov. Ron DeSantis to resume daily outbreak updates.

“There was absolutely no reason to eliminate the daily updates beyond an effort to pretend like there are no updates,” said state Rep. Anna Eskamani, a Democrat from the Orlando area.

The trend of reducing data reporting has alarmed infectious disease specialists who believe that more information is better during a pandemic. People have come to rely on state virus dashboards to help make decisions about whether to attend large gatherings or wear masks in public, and understanding the level of risk in the community affects how people respond to virus restrictions and calls to get vaccinated.

“We know that showing the data to others actually is important because the actions that businesses take, the actions that schools take, the actions that civic leaders take, the actions that community leaders take, the actions that each of us individually take are all influenced by our perception of what the risk is out there,” said Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, who leads the department of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco.

Associated Press Writer Bobby Caina Calvan contributed to this report.

Coronavirus, Coronavirus variant, Covid 19, Delta variant, Solano County CA, Vaccine

Solano County at 55.6% vaccinated, 7-day average of 15.6 daily cases per 100K residents

[Editor: Among California counties, Solano currently ranks near average in percent vaccinated (55.6%), and well above average in 7-day cases per 100K residents (15.6).  See chart below.  -R.S.]

COVID spreading fast in well-vaccinated California counties

Cases falling in counties with below-average vaccination
As the United States continues on a path to near pre-pandemic normalcy, experts remain concerned over low vaccination rates and the spread of variants, which could potentially exacerbate a pandemic that has upended life for more than a year and inflicted a damaging toll on Americans and the world. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Vallejo Times-Herald, by John Woolfolk & Harriet Rowan, July 24, 2021

California and its big coastal cities have embraced vaccines to beat back the COVID-19 pandemic. But a Bay Area News Group analysis shows not only are cases rising fast in much of the Golden State, they are soaring in many urban counties that boast high vaccination rates.

Five California counties have both a higher percentage of their eligible residents fully vaccinated and a higher average daily case rate than the statewide average: Los Angeles, San Diego, Alameda, Contra Costa and San Francisco. The five counties with falling case rates — Modoc, Glenn, Lassen, Del Norte, San Benito — have below-average vaccination rates.

Detail from chart, hovering over “Solano”.  Solano County residents 12+ vaccinated = 54.65%; 7-day average of daily cases per 100,000 residents = 15.56. (See Times-Herald interactive image for detailed data on all counties).

That doesn’t mean the vaccines don’t work — rates for infection and hospitalization remain vastly higher among the unvaccinated. So what’s going on? Experts point to two things: the extraordinary ease with which the virus’ now-dominant delta strain spreads, and the fact that no vaccine offers impenetrable protection.

“I am not so surprised that transmission rates are not neatly tracking immunization rates,” said Dr. Stephen Luby, a medical professor specializing in infectious diseases at Stanford University.

“There are a number of issues that contribute to transmission,” Luby said. “In high density urban settings, for example, even with a higher level of vaccine coverage, there can still be a lot of exposure to unvaccinated folks and potentially to folks who are vaccinated but are asymptomatically shedding the delta variant.”

The soaring case rates spurred action and pleas this past week from public health officials in the Bay Area and politicians in some of the most vaccine-resistant parts of the country. Health officials in Santa Clara, San Francisco and Contra Costa counties urged employers to require vaccinations for all workers. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell implored the unvaccinated to get their shots and ignore “demonstrably bad advice,” while the Republican governor of Alabama — the least-vaccinated state in the country — said “it’s time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks” for the virus’s continued surge.

The delta variant, which devastated India in the spring, is highly contagious and has since spread globally and throughout the U.S. and California where it accounted for 82.8% of sequenced viral specimens as of Wednesday, up from 48.8% a month earlier.

There have been mixed reports about the vaccines’ effectiveness against the variant, most of which indicate they still offer broad protection, and case rates show the fully vaccinated remain well protected.

The California Department of Public Health reported Friday that between January 1 and July 14, 99% of the state’s cumulative cases have been among unvaccinated people. For the week of July 7-14, the average daily case rate per 100,000 among unvaccinated Californians was 13 while the rate for the vaccinated was 2, the CDPH said.

A similar picture emerges locally. In Contra Costa County, which reports case rates by vaccination status, the average rate per 100,000 among the unvaccinated was 27.8 on July 16 — six times the 4.5 rate reported in the vaccinated population. In Sonoma County, the rate was 15.1 among the unvaccinated, and 3.7 for the vaccinated.

But although the vaccines do a good job bolstering the body’s ability to fight infection, they aren’t impenetrable shields. Because vaccinated people are being exposed to higher levels of a more contagious variant circulating in densely populated urban areas, their chances for contracting one of the few vaccine “breakthrough” infections are greater.

“The best, most waterproof raincoat is protective, but not when it’s storming outside or you’re in the middle of a hurricane,” said Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, a professor of epidemiology at UC San Francisco.

She and Luby added that some vaccinated people may be spreading the virus without knowing they have it while their bodies fight it off.

And since California’s June 15 reopening, when the state retired its face mask mandate and color-coded system of pandemic restrictions based on case rates, people have been venturing out more without masks to stores, restaurants and events that no longer have pandemic crowd limits. Although many people still use masks in places like the Bay Area, that can only do so much.

“It’s definitely depressing to see how quickly things turned,” Bibbins-Domingo said. “But the threat of the virus has always been there. Delta is a highly transmissible variant, something we have to respect. Even with some of the masking, we’re moving around a lot, we’re going along with our usual patterns of behavior. Put those together and you can quickly see, even though we’re wearing masks, we have vaccination, there’s no margin for error any more.”

While vaccination levels are relatively high in California and the big cities where the virus is spreading, there still are many who haven’t had or can’t get the shots.

According to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, California’s 61.1% vaccination rate of those 12 and older compares favorably to the 55.3% in Florida and 53% in Texas, and isn’t far behind New York’s 65.4%. But many, including kids under 12 and people with medical issues, can’t get the shots. Just over half California’s nearly 40 million people — 52.1% — are fully immunized.

“Once you put in the full population denominator, it’s not as high as we think,” Bibbins-Domingo said.

The rapidly worsening pandemic picture — coming at a time when many hoped the virus would be a fading memory — has led many health experts to call on federal and state authorities to reverse course and impose more face mask requirements and restrictions.

Both the CDC and California Department of Public Health have maintained that the answer remains simply getting more people vaccinated. But resistance among some people will be hard to overcome.

For now, many local health officials have been stepping in, urging people to resume wearing masks indoors, where the virus spreads more easily, regardless of vaccination, and employers to require that their workers get the shots. Some businesses, including San Francisco bar owners, are considering requiring their customers provide proof of vaccination, fearing a return of the pandemic restrictions that closed them down entirely.

Health experts like Bibbins-Domingo support all of that, and sympathize with the messaging dilemma facing public health officials.

“The challenge in public health communication is we ultimately do want more people to be vaccinated,” Bibbins-Domingo said. “And the concern is communicating that we also need to wear a mask right now will then dilute the message that we need to be vaccinated. The challenge is that both things are true.”