Category Archives: Solano County Health Officer Bela Matyas

Coronavirus, Covid 19, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Officer Bela Matyas

Solano County report: Halloween parties contributed to COVID surge

1st reports from Halloween parties cause Solano Covid-19 case surge

City of Fairfield IT Department employee Steph Bunch delivers candy from a distance to Michael Graham during the Parks and Recreation Department’s Halloween event in the parking lot at the Civic Center downtown, Friday, Oct. 30, 2020. (Robinson Kuntz/Daily Republic file)
Fairfield Daily Republic, By Todd R. Hansen, November 10, 2020

FAIRFIELD — Solano County averaged nearly 80 new cases over the past three days as the first reports of Halloween-related transmissions were reported to Public Health.

“But not big events,” Dr. Bela Matyas, the county public health officer, said in a phone interview Monday. “These are in the range of 15 to 20 people.”

He said the conclusion was that these early reports are from private events and not larger, organized parties. It also appears it is mostly younger people, so unlike July when deaths and hospitalizations surged along with the cases, that is not the case now.

“But it doesn’t help the county with its cases,” Matyas said, a reference to the state’s metrics when deciding whether Solano County could be returned to more-restrictive shutdowns if it cannot get the numbers down in the next two weeks.

The county reported 234 new cases since Friday’s update – an average of 78 cases each day. Friday’s jump was even worse at 132 new cases.

“We had a bad weekend . . . and Friday was bad,” Matyas said.

The number of deaths attributed at least in part to Covid-19 stayed at 79, with one more case being reviewed but not yet confirmed. That case also is related to a Vacaville memory care center where the past three deaths occurred.

Hospitalizations rose to 31 from 24.

Matyas said the number of active cases also has been climbing, now up to 577. That metric reflects the number of positive tests within a person’s 10-day infectious period.

The seven-day positivity testing rate, which along with the case rate is what the state looks at to determine the county’s status, was reported Monday at 11.4%. The threshold between “red” and “purple” is 8%.

California’s color-coded monitoring system designates the purple tier for counties where transmission of the novel coronavirus is considered to be widespread. Shutdown orders for counties in the purple tier are the most severe. The red tier is for counties with substantial spread of the virus. The orange tier designates moderate virus transmission, while the yellow tier is reserved for counties where the spread of the virus is deemed to be minimal.

Restrictions to slow the spread of the virus are eased as counties move from purple to red, red to orange and orange to yellow.

The total number of completed tests is 111,092, up from 109,683 in Friday’s update. The number of tests has helped the county with the state and is likely keeping it from regressing into purple status starting Tuesday.

Fairfield added 72 new cases to bring its total to 2,646. Vallejo added 80 cases for a Monday count of 2,697. Vacaville added 56 cases, bringing its tally to 1,572.

Suisun City (598) added 12 cases; Dixon (547) was up eight cases; Benicia (215) added five; and Rio Vista’s one new case took its total to 64.

The unincorporated area of the county had 27 cases reported, the same as Friday. The number was wrongly reported at 28.

[continued…]

Coronavirus, Covid 19, Hospitalizations, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Officer Bela Matyas

Solano County does not have reliable information on each day’s new COVID hospitalizations

Dr. Matyas responds to my request for daily updates on TOTAL hospitalizations since the pandemic began

By Roger Straw, September 28, 2020
Background
Roger Straw, The Benicia Independent

On September 24, I wrote to Dr. Bela Matyas, asking him to restore a TOTAL count of COVID hospitalizations since the pandemic began:

Please consider this request:  From the earliest days of the pandemic and through July 10, the County’s COVID dashboard showed Total Hospitalizations.

Beginning on July 13, the dashboard only shows Current Hospitalizations.  The daily change in Current Hospitalizations must be the difference between admissions and discharges, plus or minus, which is important to know.

However, the public needs to also know how many NEW admissions on a daily basis in order to accurately understand spread.  This can easily be seen in the daily update of Total Hospitalizations.

Please consider restoring Total Hospitalizations to the COVID dashboard.

Dr. Matyas sent the following reply on September 27:
Dr. Bela Matyas, Solano County Public Health Officer

“The daily change in total hospitalizations does not faithfully represent new hospitalizations; the majority of added hospitalizations day over day is from reconciliation of previously hospitalized cases that we learn about in arrears. It is likely to be a substantially under-reported number.

Hospitalization is not a reportable condition on an individual level; hospital capacity is the condition that we are monitoring, and total hospitalizations per day is the relevant metric. Reporting total hospitalizations to date on a daily basis would be a misleading indicator for tracking new hospitalizations both because of the timing of reports and the under-reporting of hospitalizations.”

My response today:

Dr. Matyas – Thank you for your response to my email. With respect, I think I disagree. Regardless whether a daily update of TOTAL hospitalizations since the outbreak began includes ONLY new hospitalizations TODAY or both new TODAY and “newly learned in arrears” hospitalizations, the metric of total hospitalizations (and a 7 or 14 day average graph showing the curve of that metric) would be of great significance in understanding the overall spread of the most serious cases.

This daily increase, whether learned in arrears or not, is important for the public’s awareness. MOST IMPORTANTLY, reporting on hospitalizations in this way might help in cautioning the public to take seriously the continuing need for masks, social distancing, hand washing, etc. As our public health officer, I’d hope you might stop and think about this again. Seems it wouldn’t hurt the cause at all to add this metric to the County’s COVID dashboard, and shouldn’t be too hard to calculate the data as I have been doing, working from the AGE GROUP data.

I will continue to add together the newly reported daily reported increase of hospitalizations in the AGE GROUP data in order to determine the daily increase in TOTAL hospitalizations. And I will continue to let the public know.

Roger Straw
Benicia

Click the image for Solano County COVID-19 Updates and Resources
Coronavirus, Covid 19, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Officer Bela Matyas

Solano County COVID numbers going in wrong direction

Guest dine inside at Johnny Carino’s in the Gateway shopping area in Fairfield, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2020. Restaurants in Solano County got the go-ahead for limited in-restaurant dining, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2020. (Glen Faison/Daily Republic)

Solano case numbers climb; total deaths up to 63

Fairfield Daily Republic, By Todd R. Hansen, September 25, 2020

FAIRFIELD — Solano County is going in the wrong direction – and so are the immediate hopes of moving to an even less restrictive Covid-19 tier.

The county reported Thursday that cases increased by 46, taking the total to 6,278.

Solano County’s daily case average needs to be around 18 in order to graduate from the red tier to the orange tier.

The seven-day testing positivity rate, listed Thursday at 3.9%, remains within the range to advance to the next tier, which requires the rate to be below 4.9%.

Solano County’s public health officer Dr. Bela Matyas addresses the Board of Supervisors about the novel coronavirus pandemic, 3/24/20. (Robinson Kuntz/Daily Republic)

Dr. Bela Matyas, the county public health officer, said two of the three new deaths reported Thursday were past cases, but one is new – an elderly resident who died at home, and like many other Covid-related fatalities, the person had underlying health issues.

The death total is now at 63.

The number of current hospitalizations is at 21, down one from Wednesday, while active cases climbed from 244 to 276, the county reported.

Fairfield added 16 cases to bring its count to 2,051, while Vallejo, now at 2,071, added 11 cases. Vacaville added nine, bringing its total to 1,052.

Suisun City (458) added five cases; Dixon (413) added three; Benicia (165) and Rio Vista (48) each added one. There were no new cases reported in the unincorporated area of the county, which has 22 cases.

The number of completed tests was reported by the county at 86,198, and increase of 513 over Wednesday’s update.

Solano County graduated Tuesday from the most-restrictive purple tier in the state’s color-coded Covid-19 monitoring system to the red tier, which allows limited business reopenings and opens the door for local school districts to soon begin some level of in-person classroom instruction.

A group of friends play cards in the Solano Town Center food court, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2020. Food courts like the one in the Solano Town Center could open to 25% capacity, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2020. (Robinson Kuntz/Daily Republic)

The purple tier represents widespread transmission of the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19. The red tier represents substantial transmission of the virus, while the orange tier represents moderate spread of the virus and the yellow tier indicates minimal transmission.  [continued]

Coronavirus, Covid 19, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Officer Bela Matyas

Solano’s 3 new COVID deaths not new – County is updating records

Solano reports 3 more Covid-related deaths, but from past months

Fairfield Daily Reporter, By Todd R. Hansen, September 24, 2020

FAIRFIELD — Solano County’s Covid-19 death total rose Wednesday to 60, but the three deaths actually occurred in May, June and July.

Dr. Bela Matyas, Solano County Public Health Officer

Dr. Bela Matyas, the county public health officer, said the Public Health Division is conducting an audit of its records in comparison to death certificates and that is when the discrepancy was found.

“We knew they were Covid-positive, but we didn’t know they died (because) they died at home and there was no autopsy,” Matyas said.

He noted, again, that all Covid-related deaths are recorded in those terms because the virus is present even if it is not the primary cause of the death, or in some cases, not even a contributing cause.

“So what we are trying to do is reconcile the number of deaths with the death certificates,” he said.

Matyas said he expects more to be uncovered as the survey continues.

More troubling to the county moving forward was the 38 new confirmed cases reported Wednesday.

The county needs to be closer to 18 new daily cases in order to move into the orange tier from the red tier, a step that will ease more restrictions on businesses that are open and allow even more businesses and community activities to restart.

Solano County was in the most-restrictive purple tier in the state’s color-coded monitoring system until Tuesday, meaning there was widespread transmission of the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19. The red tier represents substantial transmission of the virus, while the orange tier represents moderate spread of the virus and the yellow tier indicates minimal transmission.

The state puts the county’s daily case average at 28 because it uses a slightly different reporting structure than the county’s approach of using the day of testing.

Still, Matyas said it will be a challenge for the county to knock the average down by 10 cases per day, especially if there are any more care facility outbreaks.

The other critical piece is the seven-day positivity testing rate, which as of Wednesday was 3.3%, comfortably below the high end of the orange tier allowance of 4.9%.

The total number of cases in Solano County rose to 6,232.

The deaths are up to 60, with hospitalizations climbing from 20 Tuesday to 22 Wednesday and active cases increasing from 220 to 244, the county reported.

Fairfield, after a day with no new cases reported, added 13 to its total, now at 2,035. Vallejo added 10 to reach 2,060, while nine new cases in Vacaville took that city’s count to 1,043.

There were two cases added to Rio Vista’s tally, which is reported at 47, and one in Benicia, with a new total of 164 cases. There were no new cases reported in Dixon (453) or in the unincorporated area of the county, which has 22 cases.

The number of completed tests was reported at 85,685, up 335 over Tuesday’s update.  [continued]