Solano County reported NO NEW POSITIVE CASES today – total remains 34. You are still at risk – everyone stay home and be safe!
The chart at bottom right, “Cumulative number of confirmed COVID-19 cases…” gives a clear picture of the infection’s trajectory in Solano County.
Also of interest:
Differentiation between Total number of cases (34) and Active cases (12). NOTE THAT active cases yesterday were 15, thus 3 Solano cases are no longer considered active.
Total number hospitalized (12 known, 3 more than yesterday)
Proportion of hospitalizations due to COVID-19 (coming soon)
Total number of deaths (0 as of March 27)
Total number of cases by age groups (0-18: 0; 19-64: 22; 65 and older: 12).
Total residents tested today (coming soon)
The line chart at top right shows when these cases were tested over the last several weeks, (“Date of specimen collection”).
Note:
Solano staff refuses to divulge WHERE in the County the positive cases reside.
San Francisco Chronicle, by Rachel Swan, March 21, 2020 11:34 a.m
People under quarantine at Travis Air Force Base wander through the facility. Robert Archer, who is there with his wife, said the common areas get very crowded and long lines form for meals. Photo: Robert Archer / Robert Archer
It started Monday, with six of the nine Bay Area counties issuing orders — San Francisco, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Alameda, Contra Costa and Marin. On Tuesday, Sonoma County joined, and Napa signaled it would soon join.
But Solano County was a holdout.
“I had a talk with our county administrator,” on Tuesday, Thomson said. “I told her my thoughts about sheltering in place. She said ‘We don’t want to alarm the public.’”
County administrator Birgitta Corsello called Thomson’s recollection inaccurate, but she did not elaborate, according to spokesman Matthew Davis.
On Tuesday, Solano County Health Officer Bela Matyas released a statement to the public about the coronavirus and the shelter-in-place orders other counties had issued. He conveyed the message via a YouTube video posted on the county’s official website.
In the video, Matyas sat at a desk with his sleeves rolled up and delivered a nine-minute monologue over looped guitar music. He dismissed the shelter-in-place orders as essentially just social distancing orders that mirrored guidelines the state and federal government already put out.
“For those of you who are familiar with the concept of ‘shelter in place,’ it’s used in situations when it’s dangerous to go outside because the air is dangerous, so if there’s been a toxic chemical spill or a fire with smoke,” Matyas said. He added that “shelter in place” was not the right terminology for what’s actually social distancing.
Over the next few hours, emails poured into Thomson’s inbox. Most of them came from perplexed or frustrated residents, questioning why Solano County was not taking action.
By the end of the next day, Wednesday, the county did an about-face, issuing an order instructing residents to stay in their homes as much as possible. By Friday, Matyas’ video was made private, so the public could no longer view it.
Board of Supervisors President Erin Hannigan said she asked that the video be taken down.
“It wasn’t helpful anymore,” she said. “It needed to be altered. There were some statements he made that were no longer true … and I couldn’t stand the music.”
Davis added that the video “understandably, wasn’t tracking well with the public.” It drew a string of comments on YouTube and the county Facebook page, some of which “were not supportive,” he noted.
Thomson said that after talking to the county administrator Tuesday, he emailed Hannigan requesting a special meeting to plan for the pandemic. He said Hannigan did not respond. When he complained to Assistant County Administrator Nancy Huston, she told him the county would not hold a special meeting. Its next regular meeting is scheduled for March 24.
“What kind of message does that send to our residents?” Thomson asked.
Hannigan said later that she did reply to Thomson, but that there was no need for the board to meet. Top county officials were already “having a conversation” behind the scenes “about an order we would put out,” she said. “We wanted to make sure the nomenclature was correct.”
In the meantime, constituents were flooding Thomson with emails that showed an overwhelming sense of confusion and a lack of confidence in the county government.
“I am shocked at the utter lack of proactive response that is being taken by our county health officer Bela Matyas,” Vacaville resident Heather Smolen wrote in an email shared with The Chronicle. “In the video he recently posted online he stated that a shelter in place would cause people to ‘overreact.’ I beg to differ, I feel that a shelter in place for Solano County would cause people to finally take the risk of coronavirus seriously.”
Thomson began forwarding the emails — probably 70 of them, he said — to Huston. Other supervisors said they were also getting slammed.
“I received a lot of calls from people asking why we weren’t adopting a shelter-in-place (order),” Supervisor Jim Spering said. “I passed that on to the county administrator.”
Matyas was not available for comment Friday. Davis said all the supervisors were feeling pressure from their constituents to issue orders, and that Corsello and Matyas were trying to act as quickly as possible.
Yet many residents sensed there was no urgency to act in their county. Some were baffled by Matyas’ reluctance to enact strict interventions, in part because Solano County was the first county in the nation to report a case of coronavirus that couldn’t be traced to overseas travel or contact with an infected person. It also houses Travis Air Force Base, a quarantine center for Americans repatriated from trips abroad, and for passengers of the Grand Princess cruise ship.
So far 14 Solano County residents have tested positive for the virus, though none have died.
The notion that Solano County was still open for business troubled Vallejo Mayor Bob Sampayan. He said many Vallejo residents worried that people from other counties would flock in, causing the virus to spread more quickly. Residents were also mystified by the stark disconnect between Matyas’ video and the advisories that Vallejo was posting on its own social media channels, telling people to stay inside.
“I received concerned correspondences from constituents,” Sampayan said. “Folks were saying, ‘Look, the governor and the CDC are telling us one thing, and then we’re getting this’” other message.
He surmised that the public outcry caused Matyas to “rethink his stance.”
Spering defended Matyas. He was wary of the shelter-in-place edicts, since they force people to miss work and disrupt the economy. Although some people called him to demand more aggressive measures, others were distraught about losing their jobs.
“I’ve been getting calls from moms who have two kids, work in two restaurants, and 40% of their income is tips,” Spering said. “We have a lot of people living paycheck to paycheck.”
Still, as a longstanding politician, Spering knew he’d feel pressure to eventually deliver a shelter-at-home order.
Thomson remains frustrated. He never bothered to watch Matyas’ video.
“Once the first six counties announced that order, it seemed like we should follow suit really quickly,” he said. “But then it took us (three) days to figure it out.
“I’ve been vindicated,” he added. “But that’s not really my purpose.”
FAIRFIELD — Solano County is expected to release “stay at home” guidelines today.
Mayor Harry Price confirmed he had been informed by a county official about the upcoming announcement, and Suisun City Mayor Lori Wilson, on a conference call with local ministers and nonprofits, said it will essentially follow the same kind of guidelines that are found in the “shelter in place” health orders issued previously by seven Bay Area counties.
Solano and Napa counties were not part of that coordinated effort, a point of frustration for Supervisor Erin Hannigan.
Napa County on Wednesday afternoon announced its “stay at home” order to begin at noon on Friday and continue through April 7. The release came minutes after the conclusion of a 3:15 press conference on the matter.
It was not immediately clear when Solano’s order was going to be released. Details were not available.
Hannigan said having Solano and Napa left out of the action taken by the other counties left the impression that Solano County was not addressing the Covid-19 concerns as thoroughly as the other counties.
“And that is not the case,” Hannigan said.
Essentially what the Solano County guideline will mean, Hannigan said, is that anyone who does not have “an essential” reason for leaving their homes – including work, grocery shopping, picking up food from a restaurant, health appointments and the like – should instead stay at home.
That is particularly true for those segments of the population that are at a higher risk from the novel coronavirus, such as those 65 or older and those with underlying health issues.
“People have to hear there is a deep concern and there is a deep concern,” Hannigan said.
If residents do have to leave their homes, officials said they should practice the 6-foot social distance practices.
To limit the spread of COVID-19 disease, contact with infected or exposed individuals must be reduced as much as possible. Conventional school classes have been dismissed, but the Solano Public Health recognizes the need for continuity of childcare to ensure that essential services and wage-earning activities can continue.
Solano Public Health recommends the following guidance for childcare providers, effective immediately:
1. Childcare ideally should be provided in the child’s home, by non-elderly household members not living in the household or ill individuals.
2. Group childcare may be used for children for whom in-home care by household members is not available. It should be prioritized for use by essential service employees and those who would otherwise not be able to work.
3. Group childcare should:
a. Be in stable groups of 10 or fewer children (“stable” means that the same 10 or fewer children are in the same group each day). Children should not change from one group to another.
b. If more than 1 group of children is cared for at one facility, each group should be in a separate room. Groups should not mix with each other. For example: meals, playground time, and toileting activities should be separate for each group.
c. Childcare provider(s) should also remain solely with one group of children (providers should not move from group to group or room to room).
4. Infection control measures:
a. Screen children and staff for cold or flu-like symptoms or signs of a respiratory illness (i.e., fever, cough, shortness of breath) daily, before entering childcare.
b. Exclude ill children and employees (those with symptoms specified above) from the facility.
c. Children or staff who develop symptoms at childcare should be sent home immediately.
d. Ill children or staff should not return to work or childcare until they are well.
e. Children and staff should wash hands with soap and water for minimum of 20 seconds or use alcoholbased hand sanitizer (if hands are not visibly dirty) before and after eating, drinking, touching eyes/nose/mouth, toileting or diapering, and physical contact with each other.
f. Clean high-contact areas and surfaces frequently, using 10% bleach solution or EPA-approved disinfectant against novel human Coronaviruses: counters, toys, telephones, doorknobs, etc.
g. Staff and children should practice good respiratory hygiene including coughing/sneezing into the sleeve and covering coughs.
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