By Roger Straw, Thursday, February 17, 2022
Wednesday, February 16, 2022: Solano County reported 153 new COVID infections, 3 hospitalizations and 1 death. Solano County and Benicia case rates falling, but remain in a high transmission rate!
Solano Public Health COVID dashboard, Wednesday, February 16, 2022:
DEATHS: Solano reported 1 new death in today’s report, an Asian American 65+ years of age. Trending: Twelve new deaths reported so far in February, all over 65 years of age. The County has seen increasing COVID-related deaths each month since last November, rising to 30 in January. (Compare with last winter: 24 deaths in January 2021, 42 in February and 33 in March.) A total of 393 Solano residents have now died of COVID or COVID-related causes over the course of the pandemic.
CASES BY AGE GROUP: The color-coded chart (below) shows a record over time. It shows an alarming steady increase among youth and children in Solano County. The chart displays quarterly and recent snapshots in time 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. 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 17.6% as of today. (From the CDC covid-data-tracker.)
COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION RATE: Solano is experiencing a lower, but still HIGH transmission rate, with a total of 1,248 new cases over the last 7 days, down from 3,889 at last report, but still way up from around 500 at Christmastime. 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 1,220 ACTIVE cases today is down from 1,523 at last report, our lowest since December 27, but still way up from the County’s 329 active cases on last December 1.
CASES BY CITY – Wednesday, February 16, 2022:
- BENICIA added only 3 new cases today, a total of 2,974 cases since the outbreak began. TRANSMISSION RATE: Benicia has seen 52 new infections in the last 7 days, much lower than recent 7-day averages, but still above the CDC’s HIGH rate of community transmission. For a city with Benicia’s population, anything over 27 cases in 7 days is considered HIGH TRANSMISSION. (See chart below.)
BENICIA MASKS: >> At Tuesday’s Benicia City Council meeting, (Feb. 15), Council lifted the citywide face mask mandate. Details:- Benicia City Council fails to continue science-based COVID protections, lifts mask mandate
- VIDEO: Benicia City Council deliberates, hears public comment, and votes to lift mask mandate
Note above that Solano County is currently also experiencing a lower but still very HIGH transmission rate.
- Dixon added 17 new cases today, total of 4,087 cases.
- Fairfield added 36 new cases today, total of 20,699 cases.
- Rio Vista added 3 new cases today, total of 1,052 cases.
- Suisun City added 6 new cases today, total of 5,462 cases.
- Vacaville added 28 new cases today, a total of 19,037 cases.
- Vallejo added 60 new cases today, a total of 24,404 cases.
- Unincorporated added 0 new cases today, a total of 188 cases.
TEST RATE: Solano County’s 7-Day Percent Positive Test Rate shot up after Christmas and has continued through today’s very high 15%, although today’s report remains at last report’s 15% and has fallen steadily from a high of 36% on Jan. 19. SOLANO DOES NOT COMPARE FAVORABLY: The CALIFORNIA 7-day % positive rate fell from 6.0% to only 4.2% today. [Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Center] AND the U.S. 7-day % positive rate also fell today from 10.59% to 9.34%. [Source: CDC COVID Data Tracker.]
HOSPITALIZATIONS:
CURRENT hospitalizations fell today from 72 to 62 persons. Currently hospitalized persons in Solano peaked higher than ever before on Jan 22, at 207 persons in hospital. (The County’s previous high was 176 on Jan 7, 2021.)
TOTAL hospitalizations – Solano Public Health added 3 hospitalized persons in its Age Group chart today. All were age 65+. Of the 3, today’s report identified 1 Hispanic and 1 White resident. (Hospitalization by race data is often not reported.) Our total since the beginning of the outbreak is now 3,692 Solano residents hospitalized.
ICU Bed Availability in Solano County dropped today from 20% to only 16% available, in the Yellow danger zone.
Ventilator Availability rose today from 52% to 57% available.
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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