Category Archives: Fairfield CA

Benicia CA, Coronavirus, COVID-19 tier assignments, Fairfield CA, Re-opening, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Officer Bela Matyas, Vacaville CA, Vallejo CA

SF Chronicle: Just one Bay Area county is still stuck in the red tier. Here’s what’s holding it back

Solano County case rates and vaccination rates lagging behind other Bay Area counties

Solano County is the only Bay Area county still left in the red tier, while the rest of the Bay Area is in the less restrictive orange and yellow tiers. California Department of Public Health
San Francisco Chronicle, May 6, 2021, by Kellie Hwang

In recent months, coronavirus case rates have plummeted in much of the Bay Area. Most of the region’s counties are now in California’s “moderate” orange reopening tier, which allows for loosened restrictions, and San Francisco moved to the least restrictive yellow tier on Tuesday.

But Solano County, which has continued to struggle with higher case rates than the rest of the Bay Area, is still stuck in the red tier — the second-most-restrictive in the four-tier system.

According to the latest data from the state for the week ending April 24, Solano reported 8.8 new daily coronavirus cases per 100,000 people, and an adjusted case rate of 8.3, which takes into account a county’s testing efforts.

The metrics that the state considers for tier assignment, though, are fairly low, with a positive test rate of 2.7% and a health equity positive test rate of 2.1%. From April 28 to May 4, the average daily case rate for the county was 10 per 100,000, while the Bay Area’s overall average daily case rate was 5.

Dr. Bela Matyas, health officer for the county, said officials know the main reason for the persistently higher case rates.

“People who are not vaccinated are getting together with friends and family and not social distancing,” he said. “It’s been a problem since the very beginning.”

He said the stubborn case rates over the past couple of months can be attributed to younger individuals. The county’s COVID-19 dashboard shows 55% of cases in the 18 to 49 age group, 21% in residents 50 to 64, and 12% in individuals 65 and older. The 18 to 49 age group also has a lower vaccination rate, with 46% having received at least one dose compared to 68% in people 50 to 64 and 79% in residents 65 to 74.

“They are engaging in activities on the presumption that the pandemic is under control or behind us,” Matyas said.

Part of it could be frustration with the pandemic, and part of it could be the “sense they will not have a bad outcome” if they become infected, he said.

Matyas added that it’s hard to compare Solano County to much of the Bay Area when it comes to the pandemic. He called it a “bridge community between the two different cultures” of the Bay Area and the Central Valley.

Vaccination rates are lower than most other Bay Area counties, and vaccine hesitancy is also an issue.

“Very liberal counties have very high rates of vaccination, and traditionally conservative counties have low rates of vaccination,” he said. “We’re in the middle, a blend of the two.”

Matyas said vaccination rates tend to be higher in the southern part of the county that includes Vallejo (61.5% with at least one dose) and Benicia (72.3%), and becomes more moderate and conservative moving north to Fairfield (57.5%) and Vacaville (53.1%).

According to Solano County’s vaccine dashboard, 58% of residents 16 and older have received at least one vaccine dose, while 39% are fully vaccinated. Compare that to neighboring Napa County, where 66% of residents have received at least one vaccine dose, and 47% are fully vaccinated, or Marin County, which has the Bay Area’s highest vaccination rates with 83% having received at least one dose, and 64% fully vaccinated.

“Attendance at clinics is way down” in Solano, Matyas said. “To be honest, there are people in Solano County who don’t want it, who are choosing not to be vaccinated with full knowledge of their decision.”

So will Solano be able to make it to the orange tier? Matyas said the county has been trying, and has consistently provided outreach and education.

“We’ve never been in orange, and have been in the red and purple tiers the whole time,” Matyas said. “I would love to get to the orange because businesses, services and activities are clearly being limited in the red.”

Matyas said officials have achieved the goal of providing the vaccine to those who want it, and have mostly minimized the highest risk in the community, vaccinating nearly 80% of residents 65 and older so far.

At this point, Matyas said the primary goals for the county have shifted to ensuring access to vaccines for anyone who has had trouble receiving them, and helping those who are hesitant get past their hesitancy.

Benicia CA, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Dixon CA, Fairfield CA, Rio Vista CA, Solano County CA, Suisun City CA, Vacaville CA, Vaccine, Vallejo CA

Starting today, Solano County offers COVID vaccine to residents 16+

County also puts temporary pause on Johnson & Johnson vaccine

Solano County on Facebook, April 14, 2021

Starting today, Solano County is expanding vaccine eligibility to individuals living or working in Solano County who are age 16 and older, in accordance with state guidance to expand eligibility to all Californians in this age group.

After the statement issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommending the administration of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine be paused temporarily, Solano County is also pausing use of the J&J vaccine at this time.

Until further notice, all vaccine clinics scheduled by the County will be administering the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. The public is urged to keep their appointments if they have already been scheduled.

“We are pleased to expand eligibility to all community members age 16 and older in Solano County,” said Bela T. Matyas, M.D., M.P.H., Solano County Health Officer. “With the temporary pause in providing the J&J vaccine, appointments for first vaccine doses may continue to be limited. We ask that the public continue to be patient as the pace of administering vaccines depends on supply. In the meantime, please continue to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 by maintaining distance from those outside your household, by wearing a mask and by washing your hands often.”

Vaccines, including Johnson & Johnson, have been shown to be overwhelmingly safe and effective at preventing COVID-19. No adverse events have been reported in Solano County following administration of the J&J vaccine. The CDC and FDA’s recommendation to pause administration of the J&J vaccine is made out of an abundance of caution as the investigation is conducted into the six cases of blood clotting recently reported in the United States.

It is important to note that these reactions have been extremely rare, as nearly 7 million people have received the J&J vaccine to date in the United States. The County will continue to monitor the situation and provide additional information to the public as soon as it becomes available.

Vaccinations are no cost and available to all current eligible groups regardless of health insurance or immigration status.

Community members eligible to receive the vaccine are asked to sign up using the state’s vaccine notification and scheduling platform, www.myturn.ca.gov, or through the Solano County COVID-19 Vaccine Interest Form, www.bit.ly/solanovax, to get priority notifications on upcoming COVID-19 vaccine clinics. For more information about the COVID-19 vaccine administration and rollout in Solano County, visit www.solanocounty.com/covidvaccine and on Facebook, @SolanoCountyPH.

Benicia CA, Coronavirus, Covid 19, COVID-19 tier assignments, Dixon CA, Fairfield CA, Rio Vista CA, Suisun City CA, Vacaville CA, Vallejo CA

Map of California COVID tiers: 3 Bay Area counties moving to orange, Solano stays in red

Contra Costa, Napa and Sonoma are out of the red tier

Mercury News, by Bay Area News Group, PUBLISHED: April 6, 2021 at 12:11 p.m. | UPDATED: April 6, 2021 at 12:31 p.m.

Eighty percent of California’s population is in the orange COVID tier after Tuesday’s reassignment.

Moving from red to orange were 15 counties: Contra Costa, Napa, Sonoma, Siskiyou, Humboldt, Mendocino, El Dorado, San Benito, Monterey, Tulare, Ventura, San Bernardino, Riverside, San Diego and Imperial.

Moving from purple to red was San Joaquin County.

The looser regulations in those counties will take effect Wednesday.

Only two counties — Merced and Inyo — remain in the purple tier, indicating “widespread” risk. They account for less than 1% of the state’s population.

Thirty-two of the 58 counties, with 80.5% of the population, are in the orange tier (“moderate” risk). Of the Bay Area counties, only Solano hasn’t advanced to that tier.

At a press conference Tuesday morning, state Health and Human Services Secretary Mark Ghaly said the tier-based system of COVID-19 restrictions is likely to be discontinued on June 15. The mask mandate is expected to remain in effect after that date, but businesses will probably be allowed to open at full capacity, he said.

Click here for the state’s official COVID website, including details of what activities are allowed in the various tiers.

Benicia CA, Coronavirus, Covid 19, COVID-19 tier assignments, Dixon CA, Fairfield CA, Keeping Watch on Earth News, Rio Vista CA, Solano County CA, Suisun City CA, Vacaville CA, Vallejo CA

Solano is only Bay Area county remaining in red tier

Newsom shares date for state’s full reopening; three Bay Area counties move to orange tier

Napa County is among three counties expected to reach the orange tier effective Wednesday, enabling wineries and distilleries to host customers indoors without serving meals.
San Francisco Business Times, By Alex Barreira, Apr 6, 2021

After 31 weeks, an end to the tier system is in sight: Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday that the state plans to remove most of coronavirus restrictions on June 15 if vaccinations remain widely available and hospitalization of Covid-19 patients remains low.

At that point California would allow restaurants, bars, stores, movie theaters, museums and practically all other businesses statewide to resume operations without capacity limits both indoors and outside, state Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly told officials on Tuesday morning. Not everything would return to normal immediately — after June 15 California’s mask mandate will remain in place for the foreseeable future, officials said.

“We’re seeing bright light at the end of the tunnel,” Newsom said at the press conference, cautioning that the state will move “soberly and thoughtfully, guided by the data” to the next stage. “Everything being equal on June 15, we’ll be opening up business as usual.”

“The entire state will move into this phase as a whole. This will not be county-by-county,” Ghaly said in a briefing call with reporters Tuesday, reports the Los Angeles Times.

It’s unclear yet how much power local counties will have at their discretion to impose effective modifications to the “full reopening,” such as caps on capacity at event sizes, as San Francisco in particular has used to enforce a more conservative approach to reopening throughout the pandemic.

Newsom also shared that the state has reached its goal of administering 4 million vaccines to residents of low-income-designated areas throughout the state, activating looser criteria for counties to advance to the next tier.

On top of that news, the state included three Bay Area counties — Napa, Sonoma and Contra Costa — among the 16 across the state moving into less restrictive tiers. In the case of those Bay Area counties, they’re moving from the red “substantial” tier to the orange “moderate” tier, opening nonessential offices, indoor bars, and host limited live entertainment events, among other activities, effective Wednesday.

Solano County is the only county in the Bay Area still on the red tier.  Eight of nine Bay Area counties have now reached the orange tier.

If their case numbers continue to improve, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties would be on pace to become eligible for the yellow tier next week.

Here’s what the orange tier counties can expect under the new tier changes, which would become effective Wednesday morning:

  • Bars that don’t serve food can reopen, but can only seat patrons outdoors. Wineries, distilleries and breweries that don’t serve meals can resume hosting customers indoors.
  • Restaurants and movie theaters can increase their indoor capacity to 50% or 200 people, whichever is fewer. Previously, both establishments were limited to 25% capacity or 100 people, whichever was fewer.
  • Retail stores can open to full indoor capacity as long as social distancing is enforced, up from 50% capacity previously.
  • Indoor gyms can expand from 10% to 25% capacity.
  • Museums and places of worship can move from 25% to 50% indoor capacity.
  • Nonessential offices can reopen, but the state is still encouraging remote work.
  • Amusement parks can open outdoors to 25% capacity for counties in the orange zone, or a maximum 500 people, but only in-state visitors are allowed and tickets must be purchased in advance.

On Friday state officials also loosened restrictions on holding indoor events such as conferences and performances for the first time since early 2020. They introduced a sliding scale for the number of visitors that can attend, and venues can increase capacity if visitors are vaccinated or have recent negative tests for coronavirus.

On the orange tier, indoor venues can host up to 15% capacity, and 35% if guests are vaccinated. For events with over 1,500 people, the orange tier allows 10% capacity and 35% if guests are vaccinated.