Category Archives: Hospitalizations

VIDEO: Benicia City Council chooses to continue mask mandate

BENICIA CITY COUNCIL DISCUSSION ON MASK MANDATE, JANUARY 18, 2022

For a little over an hour last night, Benicia City staff, Council and members of the public discussed whether to continue Benicia’s COVID-19 mask mandate, and what “metrics” should be used to determine when it is safe to lift the mandate.

In light of the current upswing and unpredictability given the Omicron surge, Council chose to leave the mandate in place, and to keep an eye on mask regulations issued by the State of California Department of Public Health.

It’s a fascinating discussion.  Below you can view the entire conversation, or choose one or more shorter segments of particular interest: public comments by Benicia residents Stephen Golub, Marilyn Bardet, and Dr. Richard Fleming (and also the follow-up Q&A with Dr. Fleming. )  Finally, you may view Mayor Young’s 1-minute closing summary.

The entire conversation, Benicia City Council Meeting on Jan 18, 2022, ITEM 21.B) – UPDATE ON FACE COVERINGS MANDATE…

Public comment by Benicia resident Stephen Golub
Public comment by Benicia resident Marilyn Bardet
Public comment by Benicia resident Dr. Richard Fleming (including a really informative follow-up Q&A with Mayor Young)

No Action summary by Mayor Young (mask mandate remains in place for now):

Solano COVID infections up nearly 8,000 this week, including over 1,400 children & teens

NOTE: The information below is not the latest.  TAP HERE for today’s latest information.

January 14, 2022 SUMMARY: Solano County recorded 2,170 new infections today, 7,933 in the last week! Over 1,400 children and young teens infected this past week. 1 new COVID-related death reported today, and 83 previously undisclosed hospitalizations.  We are in EXTREME HIGH rate of transmission.

Solano Public Health COVID dashboard, Friday, January 14:

DEATHS: Solano reported 1 new death today, a Hispanic person age 18-49.  Trending: The County reported 27 COVID deaths in September, 18 in October, 14 in November, 22 in December, and 13 already in January (49 of us have died over 59 days since the uptick beginning on November 15).  A total of 364 Solano residents have now died of COVID or COVID-related causes over the course of the pandemic.

CASES BY AGE GROUP: The County reported 2,170 new COVID cases today!  407 of these 2,170 new cases (19%) were youth and children under 18.  The majority, 1,233 cases (57%) were age 18-49.  380 cases (18%) were age 50-64, and 149 (7%) were 65+.
BELOW: color-coded chart shows CASES SINCE THE OUTBREAK BEGAN BY AGE GROUP, each as a percentage of TOTAL CASES SINCE THE OUTBREAK BEGAN.  Increases are in red and decreases are in green as reported by Solano County since April of 2020.  Note the continuing increase among children & youth of Solano County.  The population of those age 0-17 in Solano County is roughly 22%.COMPARE – U.S. cases among children and youth aged 0-17 as percentage of total cases is 16.4% as of today, up dramatically from 15.9% on Monday.  (From the CDC covid-data-tracker.)

COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION RATE:  Solano has risen dramatically and almost daily since December 27 into an EXTREMELY HIGH transmission rate, with a total of 7,933 new cases over the last 7 days, up from 2,500 a week ago, and only 333 a month ago.  CDC FORMULA: Based on Solano County’s population, 450 or more cases in 7 days places Solano in the CDC’s population-based definition of a HIGH transmission rate.  We would need to drop below 225 cases in 7 days to rate as having only MODERATE community transmission.

ACTIVE CASES: Solano’s 6,845 ACTIVE cases shot up dramatically again today, rising from 2,554 a week ago and 290 a month ago.

CASES BY CITY – Friday, January 14:

  • Benicia added 104 new cases in the last 2 days, a total of 2,292 cases since the outbreak began.  Benicia has seen 420 new infections in the last 7 days, rising far above the CDC’s HIGH rate of community transmission. >(For a city with Benicia’s population, anything over 27 is considered HIGH)(see chart below).  Based on Benicia population, MODERATE is defined as less than 14 cases over the last 7 days, SUBSTANTIAL is 14-27 cases, and HIGH is 28 or more cases.  Benicia will need to maintain fewer than 14 new cases-per-7-days for 30 consecutive days before relaxing its mask mandateNote above that Solano County is currently also experiencing HIGH transmission.

  • Dixon added 97 new cases today, total of 3,217 cases.
  • Fairfield added 551 new cases today, total of 15,742 cases.
  • Rio Vista reported 58 new cases today, total of 813 cases.
  • Suisun City added 130 new cases today, total of 4,146 cases.
  • Vacaville added 321 new cases today, a total of 14,857 cases.
  • Vallejo added 904 new cases today, a total of 18,575 cases.
  • Unincorporated added 5 new cases today, a total of 169 cases.

POSITIVE TEST RATE:  Solano County’s 7-Day Percent Positive Test Rate shot up after Christmas and has continued through today’s incredibly high 35%.  The County’s black and blue LINE GRAPH has the best detail, but those details are difficult to read, and the numbers are adjusted retroactively each day.  I’ve created a table here to show the County’s reading in today’s line graph. 

COMPARE: Today the California 7-day % positive rate fell slightly today to 19.0%.  [Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Center]  The U.S. 7-day % positive rate fell slightly today to 28.2%. [Source: CDC COVID Data Tracker.] 

HOSPITALIZATIONS:

CURRENT hospitalizations: rose today from 112 to 118 persons, our highest number since September 3, 2021. (See also TOTAL hospitalizations, next below…)

TOTAL hospitalizations – Today’s age chart shows 83 previously unreported hospitalizations.  (Details below.)  Since December 1, Solano has reported 270 new hospitalizations by age group, including 202 since Christmas and 148 just this past week Our total since the beginning of the outbreak is now 3,429 hospitalizations.   (Data on age is more reliable than that on race/ethnicity.)

ICU Bed Availability in Solano County fell sharply from 29% at last report to only 20% today, in the Yellow danger zone.

Ventilator Availability  was down again, from 67% to 64%.


HOW DOES TODAY’S REPORT COMPARE?  See recent reports and others going back to April 20, 2020 in 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.

See also my BENINDY ARCHIVE of daily Solano COVID updates (an excel spreadsheet).  I have also archived the hundreds of full CORONAVIRUS REPORTS posted here almost daily on the Benicia Independent since April 2020.

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Benicia and Solano: COVID cases, hospitalizations exploding – never saw anything like this!

NOTE: The information below is not the latest.  TAP HERE for today’s latest information.

January 12, 2022 SUMMARY: Solano County recorded 5,205 new infections in 2 days! 2 new COVID-related deaths and 63 previously undisclosed hospitalizations.  Solano & Benicia in EXTREME HIGH rate of transmission.  Nearly 1,000 children and young teens test positive.

Solano Public Health COVID dashboard, Wednesday, January 12:

DEATHS: Solano reported 2 new deaths today, one age 18-49 and one 65+, both Black.  Trending: The County reported 27 COVID deaths in September, 18 in October, 14 in November, 22 in December, and 12 already in January (48 of us have died over 59 days since the uptick beginning on November 15).  A total of 363 Solano residents have now died of COVID or COVID-related causes over the course of the pandemic.

CASES BY AGE GROUP: The County reported 5,205 new COVID cases today!  949 of these 5,205 new cases (18%) were youth and children under 18.  The majority, 3,026 cases (58%) were age 18-49.  852 cases (16%) were age 50-64, and 377 (7%) were 65+.
BELOW: color-coded chart shows CASES SINCE THE OUTBREAK BEGAN BY AGE GROUP, each as a percentage of TOTAL CASES SINCE THE OUTBREAK BEGAN.  Increases are in red and decreases are in green as reported by Solano County since April of 2020.  Note the steady increase among children and youth of Solano County.  The population of those age 0-17 in Solano County is roughly 22%.COMPARE – U.S. cases among children and youth aged 0-17 as percentage of total cases is 16.4% as of today, up dramatically from 15.9% at last report.  (From the CDC covid-data-tracker.)

COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION RATE:  Solano has risen dramatically and almost daily since December 27 into an EXTREMELY HIGH transmission rate, with a total of 6,196 new cases over the last 7 days, up from 1,829 at last report.  CDC FORMULA: Based on Solano County’s population, 450 or more cases in 7 days places Solano in the CDC’s population-based definition of a HIGH transmission rate.  We would need to drop below 225 cases in 7 days to rate as having only MODERATE community transmission.

ACTIVE CASES: Solano’s 5,666 ACTIVE cases shot up dramatically today from the County’s January 10 report of 1,143 active cases.

CASES BY CITY – Wednesday, January 12:

  • Benicia added 290 new cases in the last 2 days, a total of 2,188 cases since the outbreak began.  Benicia has seen 333 new infections in the last 7 days, raising far above the CDC’s HIGH rate of community transmission. >(For a city with Benicia’s population, anything over 27 is considered HIGH)(see chart below).  Based on Benicia population, MODERATE is defined as less than 14 cases over the last 7 days, SUBSTANTIAL is 14-27 cases, and HIGH is 28 or more cases.  Benicia will need to maintain fewer than 14 new cases-per-7-days for 30 consecutive days before relaxing its mask mandateNote above that Solano County is currently also experiencing HIGH transmission.

  • Dixon added 271 new cases today, total of 3,120 cases.
  • Fairfield added 1,328 new cases today, total of 15,191 cases.
  • Rio Vista reported 63 new cases today, total of 755 cases.
  • Suisun City added 364 new cases today, total of 4,016 cases.
  • Vacaville added 914 new cases today, a total of 14,536 cases.
  • Vallejo added 1,969 new cases today, a total of 17,671 cases.
  • Unincorporated added 6 new cases today, a total of 164 cases.

POSITIVE TEST RATE:  Solano County’s 7-Day Percent Positive Test Rate shot up after Christmas and has continued through today’s incredibly high 32%.  The County’s black and blue LINE GRAPH has the best detail, but those details are difficult to read, and the numbers are adjusted retroactively each day.  I’ve created a table here to show the County’s reading in today’s line graph. 

Tap image to enlarge. (Interactive version: Solano COVID dashboard.)

COMPARE: Today the California rate jumped to 19.4%.  [Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Center]  The U.S. rate fell slightly today to 28.59%. [Source: CDC COVID Data Tracker.] 

HOSPITALIZATIONS:

CURRENT hospitalizations: rose today from 103 to 112 persons, our highest number since September 8, 2021. (See also TOTAL hospitalizations, next below…)

TOTAL hospitalizations – PLUS 63.  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.  Solano updated its age and race hospitalizations charts today. Today’s age chart shows 63 previously unreported hospitalizations.  (Details below.)  Solano has reported 185 new hospitalizations by age group since December 1, including 119 just since Christmas.  Our total since the beginning of the outbreak is now 3,346 hospitalizations.

ICU Bed Availability in Solano County fell from 30% at last report to 29% today, still in the Yellow danger zone.

Ventilator Availability  was down sharply from 77% to 67%.


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.

See also my BENINDY ARCHIVE of daily Solano COVID updates (an excel spreadsheet).  I have also archived the hundreds of full CORONAVIRUS REPORTS posted here almost daily on the Benicia Independent since April 2020.

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Solano County: no COVID report today, Wednesday January 12

NOTE: The information below is not the latest.  CLICK HERE for today’s latest information.

Solano County modified its COVID dashboard on the evening of January 12, indicating that “Data from the State is not available and will be updated 1/13/22 by 4:00pm.”

For your most recent Solano and Benicia data, I am re-running Monday’s report below.  Check back here tomorrow.  (For additional Solano info on COVID, see Public Health’s Coronavirus (COVID-19) Information page.)
– Roger Straw

January 10, 2022 SUMMARY: Solano County recorded 558 new infections over the weekend, 4 new COVID-related deaths and 2 previously undisclosed hospitalizations.  Solano & Benicia continue in EXTREMELY HIGH rate of community transmission.

Solano Public Health COVID dashboard, Monday, January 10:

Tap image to enlarge. (Interactive version: Solano COVID dashboard.)

DEATHS: Solano reported 4 new deaths today, three age 50-64 and one 65+.  Three of the four were identified by race: 1 Black, 1 White and 1 Multi-race.  Trending: The County reported 27 COVID deaths in September, 18 in October, 14 in November, 22 in December, and 10 already in January (46 of us have died over 57 days since the uptick beginning on November 15).  A total of 361 Solano residents have now died of COVID or COVID-related causes over the course of the pandemic.

CASES BY AGE GROUP: The County reported 558 new COVID cases today.  88 of these 558 new cases (16%) were youth and children under 18.  The majority, 323 cases (58%) were age 18-49.  101 cases (18%) were age 50-64, and 47 (8%) were 65+.
BELOW: color-coded chart shows CASES SINCE THE OUTBREAK BEGAN BY AGE GROUP, each as a percentage of TOTAL CASES SINCE THE OUTBREAK BEGAN.  Increases are in red and decreases are in green as reported by Solano County since April of 2020.  Note the steady increase among children and youth of Solano County.  The population of those age 0-17 in Solano County is roughly 22%.COMPARE – U.S. cases among children and youth aged 0-17 as percentage of total cases is 15.9% as of today.  (From the CDC covid-data-tracker.)

COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION RATE:  Solano has risen dramatically since December 27 into what I would call an EXTREMELY HIGH transmission rate, with a total of 1,829 new cases over the last 7 days, down from 2,500 at last report.  CDC FORMULA: Based on Solano County’s population, 450 or more cases in 7 days places Solano in the CDC’s population-based definition of a HIGH transmission rate.  We would need to drop below 225 cases in 7 days to rate as having only MODERATE community transmission.

ACTIVE CASES: Solano’s 1,143 ACTIVE cases is down from the County’s last report of 2,554 active cases.

CASES BY CITY – Monday, January 10:

  • Benicia added 26 new cases over the weekend, a total of 1,898 cases since the outbreak began.  Benicia has seen 81 new infections in the last 7 days, and so remains in the CDC’s [EXTREMELY] HIGH rate of community transmission(see chart below).  Based on Benicia population, MODERATE is defined as less than 14 cases over the last 7 days, SUBSTANTIAL is 14-27 cases, and HIGH is 28 or more cases.  Benicia will need to maintain fewer than 14 new cases-per-7-days for 30 consecutive days before relaxing its mask mandateNote above that Solano County is currently also experiencing HIGH transmission.

  • Dixon added 26 new cases today, total of 2,849 cases.
  • Fairfield added 148 new cases today, total of 13,863 cases.
  • Rio Vista reported 6 new cases today, total of 692 cases.
  • Suisun City added 37 new cases today, total of 3,652 cases.
  • Vacaville added 110 new cases today, a total of 13,622 cases.
  • Vallejo added 205 new cases today, a total of 15,702 cases.
  • Unincorporated added 0 new cases today, a total of 158 cases.

POSITIVE TEST RATE:  Solano County’s Percent Positive Test Rates shot up after Christmas.  But the test rate is tricky to follow.  In today’s Solano COVID dashboard, our 7-day positivity numbers supposedly fell from 18% to 13% – but that number will almost undoubtedly be adjusted upward in coming days.  A better understanding comes with the numbers in today’s 7-day % positive LINE GRAPH (blue below) which gets updated retroactively each day.  I’ve created a table here to show the County’s adjustments in today’s line graph.  The significance is that last Friday’s Jan. 7 report was totally misleading – and today’s report of 13% will turn out to be similarly unreliable. Today’s chart shows our largest spike in positive tests on January 3-4 rather than December 29-30.  The County adjusts these numbers after-the-fact every day.  Stay tuned.)

Tap image to enlarge. (Interactive version: Solano COVID dashboard.)

  COMPARE: Today the California rate jumped to 18.5%.  [Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Center]  The U.S. rate jumped to 29.36% today. [Source: CDC COVID Data Tracker.] 

HOSPITALIZATIONS:

CURRENT hospitalizations: rose dramatically today from 70 persons to 103 persons.  (See also TOTAL hospitalizations, next below…)

TOTAL hospitalizations – PLUS 2.  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.  Solano updated its age and race hospitalizations charts just a bit today. Today’s age chart showed 2 previously unreported hospitalizations, both age 65+.  One was Hispanic, the other not reported.  Solano hospitals have now reported a total of over 3,283 COVID patients since the beginning of the outbreak.

ICU Bed Availability in Solano County fell from 38% at last report to 30%, back in the Yellow danger zone.

Ventilator Availability  was up from 73% to 77%.


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.

See also my BENINDY ARCHIVE of daily Solano COVID updates (an excel spreadsheet).  I have also archived the hundreds of full CORONAVIRUS REPORTS posted here almost daily on the Benicia Independent since April 2020.

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