Category Archives: #wearamask

#wearamask, Benicia CA, Benicia City Council, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Face coverings, Hospitalizations, Omicron variant, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Department, Vaccine, Vaccine mandate

COVID deaths increasing in Solano County

NOTE: The information below is not the latest.  CLICK HERE for today’s latest information.
By Roger Straw, Monday, December 6, 2021
[See also New York Times, Coronavirus: What we know about Omicron.]

Monday, December 6: Solano County reports
5 new deaths and 154 new infections. Solano County remains in a SUBSTANTIAL rate of community transmission;  Benicia rates MODERATE transmission over past 7 days.

Solano County COVID dashboard SUMMARY:
[Sources: see below.]

DEATHS: Solano reported 5 new deaths today.  The County reported 27 COVID deaths in September, 18 in October, 11 in November, and 12 so far in early December (23 in the last 19 days, since November 17).  Of the 5 new deaths, 2 were age 18-49, 1 was age 50-65 and 2 were 65+.  A total of 338 Solano residents have now died of COVID or COVID-related causes over the course of the pandemic.

CASES: The County reported 154 new COVID cases over the weekend.  CASES BY AGE GROUP: 37 of these 154 cases (24%) were youth and children under 18.  78 (51%) were age 18-49, 25  (16%) were age 50-64, and 14 (9%) were 65+.  BELOW: color-coded analysis of cases reported by age group, expressed as a percentage of total cases.  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 at 15.5% as of today. (From the CDC covid-data-tracker.)

COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION RATE: Over the last 7 days, Solano has seen SUBSTANTIAL community transmission, with 343 new cases (down from 368 on Friday).  CDC FORMULA: Based on Solano County’s population, 450 cases in 7 days would move Solano up into the CDC’s population-based definition of a HIGH transmission rate, and we will need to drop below 225 cases in 7 days to rate as having only MODERATE community transmission.

ACTIVE CASES: Solano’s 402 ACTIVE cases is up from last Friday’s 333, and still far above our summer rates.

CASES BY CITY on Monday, December 6:

  • Benicia added 7 new cases today, a total of 1,606 cases since the outbreak began, and 13 cases over the last 7 days.  This moves Benicia back into the MODERATE rate of community transmission for the first time since November 22 (see chart below).  MODERATE is defined as less than 14 cases, based on Benicia population.  Benicia will need to maintain fewer than 14 new cases-per-7-days for 30 consecutive days before relaxing its mask mandate.  Note above that Solano County is also currently experiencing SUBSTANTIAL transmission.

  • Dixon added 7 new cases today, total of 2,603 cases.
  • Fairfield added 36 new cases today, total of 12,631 cases.
  • Rio Vista reported 1 new case today, total of 635 cases.
  • Suisun City added 17 new cases today, total of 3,343 cases.
  • Vacaville added 47 new cases today, a total of 12,481 cases.
  • Vallejo added 38 new cases today, a total of 13,777 cases.
  • Unincorporated added 1 new case today, a total of 146 cases.

POSITIVE TEST RATE:  Solano’s 7-day percent positivity rate was 5.0% today, down from Friday’s 5.3%.  COMPARE: Today’s California rate is 1.4%.  [Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Center]  Today’s U.S. rate is 8.26%. [Source: CDC COVID Data Tracker.] 

HOSPITALIZATIONS:

CURRENT hospitalizations were down today from 22 to 21 persons, still above the range we saw during last summer.

TOTAL hospitalizations: 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 Public Health did not update its age and race hospitalizations charts today.  Last week, updates showed 156 previously unreported hospitalizations.  Solano hospitals have reported a total of 3,173 COVID patients since the beginning of the outbreak.  (Data on age is more reliable than that on race/ethnicity.)

ICU Bed Availability is down dramatically today, from 51% on Friday to only 29% today, falling once again into the County’s YELLOW danger zone.

Ventilator Availability today is down a bit today from 77% to 76%.

MASK MANDATE – ALERT!
Benicia’s mask mandate will remain in effect, but could be altered at City Council meeting TOMORROW – on December 7.
Vallejo also passed an indoors mask mandate on August 31.  In the Bay Area, Solano County REMAINS the only holdout against a mask mandate for public indoors spaces.

SOLANO COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS failed to consider an agendized proposal for a countywide MASK MANDATE on Tuesday, September 14.  Bay Area news put Solano in a sad light: all other county health officers issued a joint statement offering details on when they would be able to lift mask mandates (not likely soon).  TV news anchors had to point out that Solano would not be considering such a move since our health officer had not been able to “justify” a mask mandate in the first place.  The Solano Board of Supervisors has joined with Dr. Bela Matyas in officially showing poor leadership on the COVID-19 pandemic.

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.

Sources
#wearamask, Benicia CA, Benicia City Council, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Face coverings, Hospitalizations, Omicron variant, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Department, Vaccine, Vaccine mandate

COVID won’t quit in Solano – reporting 4 more dead, 14 more hospitalized, 117 more infected

NOTE: The information below is not the latest.  CLICK HERE for today’s latest information.
By Roger Straw, Friday, December 3, 2021
[See also New York Times, Coronavirus: What we know about Omicron.]

Friday, December 3: Solano County reports
4 new deaths, 14 previously unreported hospitalizations and 117 new infections. Solano County AND Benicia remain in a SUBSTANTIAL rate of community transmission.

Solano County COVID dashboard SUMMARY:
[Sources: see below.]

DEATHS: Solano reported 4 new deaths today.  The County reported 27 COVID deaths in September, 18 in October, and 11 in November, and 7 so far in early December (18 in the last 16 days, since November 17).  A total of 333 Solano residents have now died of COVID or COVID-related causes over the course of the pandemic.

CASES: The County reported 117 new COVID cases over the past 2 days.  CASES BY AGE GROUP: 23 of these 117 cases (20%) were youth and children under 18.  66 (56%) were age 18-49, 18  (15%) were age 50-64, and 10 (6%) were 65+.  BELOW: color-coded analysis of cases reported by age group, expressed as a percentage of total cases.  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 age 0-17 as percentage of total cases is at 15.4% as of today. (From the CDC covid-data-tracker.)

COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION RATE: Over the last 7 days, Solano has seen SUBSTANTIAL community transmission, with 368 new cases (jumping up from 251 on Wednesday).  CDC FORMULA: Based on Solano County’s population, 450 cases in 7 days would move Solano up into the CDC’s population-based definition of a HIGH transmission rate, and we will need to drop below 225 cases in 7 days to rate as having only MODERATE community transmission.

ACTIVE CASES: Solano’s 333 ACTIVE cases is up from Wednesday’s 329, and still far above our summer rates.

CASES BY CITY on Friday, December 3:

  • Benicia added 2 new cases today, a total of 1,599 cases since the outbreak began, and 18 cases over the last 7 days.  This keeps Benicia in the SUBSTANTIAL rate of community transmission  (see chart below).  MODERATE is defined as less than 14 cases, based on Benicia population.  Benicia will need to maintain fewer than 14 new cases-per-7-days for 30 consecutive days before relaxing its mask mandate.  Note above that Solano County is also currently experiencing SUBSTANTIAL transmission.

  • Dixon added 7 new cases today, total of 2,596 cases.
  • Fairfield added 30 new cases today, total of 12,595 cases.
  • Rio Vista reported 1 new case today, total of 634 cases.
  • Suisun City added 4 new cases today, total of 3,326 cases.
  • Vacaville added 40 new cases today, a total of 12,434 cases.
  • Vallejo added 33 new cases today, a total of 13,739 cases.
  • Unincorporated added 0 new cases today, a total of 145 cases.

POSITIVE TEST RATE:  Solano’s 7-day percent positivity rate was 5.3% today, down from Wednesday’s 6.4%.  COMPARE: Today’s California rate is 2.7%.  [Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Center]  Today’s U.S. rate is 8.36%. [Source: CDC COVID Data Tracker.] 

HOSPITALIZATIONS:

CURRENT hospitalizations were down today from 15 to 22 persons, still above the range we saw during last summer.

TOTAL hospitalizations: 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 Public Health updated its age and race hospitalizations charts again today, for the third time this week.  The age chart showed 24 previously unreported hospitalizations on Monday, 118 on Wednesday, and 14 more today!  Today’s report added 1 youth age 0-17,  7 young adults age 18-49, 1 Solano resident age 50-64, and 5 of our elders age 65+.  Solano hospitals reported a new total of 3,173 COVID patients since the beginning of the outbreak.  (Data on age is more reliable than that on race/ethnicity.)

ICU Bed Availability is 51% today, up unchanged since Wednesday, and firmly in the County’s GREEN zone.

Ventilator Availability today rose today from 72% to 77%.

MASK MANDATE – ALERT!
Benicia’s mask mandate will remain in effect, but could be altered at City Council meeting on December 7.
Vallejo also passed an indoors mask mandate on August 31.  In the Bay Area, Solano County REMAINS the only holdout against a mask mandate for public indoors spaces.

SOLANO COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS failed to consider an agendized proposal for a countywide MASK MANDATE on Tuesday, September 14.  Bay Area news put Solano in a sad light: all other county health officers issued a joint statement offering details on when they would be able to lift mask mandates (not likely soon).  TV news anchors had to point out that Solano would not be considering such a move since our health officer had not been able to “justify” a mask mandate in the first place.  The Solano Board of Supervisors has joined with Dr. Bela Matyas in officially showing poor leadership on the COVID-19 pandemic.

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.

Sources
#wearamask, Benicia CA, Benicia City Council, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Face coverings, Hospitalizations, Omicron variant, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Department, Vaccine, Vaccine mandate

Solano County playing catchup – discloses 3 new COVID deaths and 118 previously unreported hospitalizations

NOTE: The information below is not the latest.  CLICK HERE for today’s latest information.
By Roger Straw, Wednesday, December 1, 2021
[See also New York Times, Coronavirus: What we know about Omicron.]

Wednesday, December 1: Solano County reports
3 new deaths, 118 previously unreported hospitalizations and 72 new infections. Solano County AND Benicia remain in a SUBSTANTIAL rate of community transmission.

Solano County COVID dashboard SUMMARY: Wednesday, December 1:
[Sources: see below.]

DEATHS: Solano reported 3 new deaths today.  The County reported 27 COVID deaths in September, 18 in October, and 14 so far in November (all in the last 2 weeks).  A total of 329 Solano residents have died of COVID or COVID-related causes over the course of the pandemic.

CASES: The County reported 72 new COVID cases over the past 2 days.  CASES BY AGE GROUP: 16 of these 72 cases (22%) were youth and children under 18.  37 were age 18-49, 14 were age 50-64, and only 5 were 65+.  Below: color-coded analysis of cases reported by age group, expressed as a percentage of total cases.  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 age 0-17 as percentage of total cases is at 15.4% as of today. (From the CDC covid-data-tracker.)

COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION RATE: Over the last 7 days, Solano has seen SUBSTANTIAL community transmission, with 251 new cases (down from 267 on Monday).  CDC FORMULA: Based on Solano County’s population, 450 cases in 7 days would move Solano up into the CDC’s population-based definition of a HIGH transmission rate, and we will need to drop below 225 cases in 7 days to rate as having only MODERATE community transmission.

ACTIVE CASES: Solano’s 329 ACTIVE cases is up from Monday’s 304, and still far above our summer rates.

CASES BY CITY on Wednesday, December 1:

  • Benicia added 4 new cases today, a total of 1,597 cases since the outbreak began, and 16 cases over the last 7 days.  This keeps Benicia in the SUBSTANTIAL rate of community transmission  (see chart below).  MODERATE is defined as less than 14 cases, based on Benicia population.  Benicia will need to maintain fewer than 14 new cases-per-7-days for 30 consecutive days before relaxing its mask mandate.  Note above that Solano County is also currently experiencing SUBSTANTIAL transmission.

  • Dixon added 4 new cases today, total of 2,589 cases.
  • Fairfield added 14 new cases today, total of 12,565 cases.
  • Rio Vista reported 0 new cases today, total of 633 cases.
  • Suisun City added 4 new cases today, total of 3,322 cases.
  • Vacaville added 27 new cases today, a total of 12,394 cases.
  • Vallejo added 19 new cases today, a total of 13,706 cases.
  • Unincorporated added 0 new cases today, a total of 145 cases.

POSITIVE TEST RATE:  Solano’s 7-day percent positivity rate was 6.4% today, down slightly from Monday’s 6.5%.  COMPARE: Today’s California rate is 2.0%.  [Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Center]  Today’s U.S. rate is 7.42%. [Source: CDC COVID Data Tracker.] 

HOSPITALIZATIONS:

CURRENT hospitalizations were down today from 18 to 15 persons, but still above the range we saw during last summer.

TOTAL hospitalizations: 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 Public Health updated its age and race hospitalizations charts again today, for the second time this week.  The age chart showed 24 previously unreported hospitalizations on Monday, and 118 more today!  Today’s report added 2 youths age 0-17,  44 young adults age 18-49, 36 Solano residents age 50-64, and 36 of our elders age 65+.  Solano hospitals reported a new total of 3,159 COVID patients since the beginning of the outbreak.  (Data on age is more reliable than that on race/ethnicity.)

ICU Bed Availability is 51% today, up substantially from 33% on Monday, and firmly in the County’s GREEN zone.

Ventilator Availability today fell today from 82% to 72%.

MASK MANDATE
Benicia’s mask mandate will remain in effect, at least through December 7.  IMPORTANT – See Steve Golub’s important new ALERT in advance of Council’s December 7 meeting.
Vallejo also passed an indoors mask mandate on August 31.  In the Bay Area, Solano County REMAINS the only holdout against a mask mandate for public indoors spaces.

SOLANO COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS failed to consider an agendized proposal for a countywide MASK MANDATE on Tuesday, September 14.  Bay Area news put Solano in a sad light: all other county health officers issued a joint statement offering details on when they would be able to lift mask mandates (not likely soon).  TV news anchors had to point out that Solano would not be considering such a move since our health officer had not been able to “justify” a mask mandate in the first place.  The Solano Board of Supervisors has joined with Dr. Bela Matyas in officially showing poor leadership on the COVID-19 pandemic.

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.

Sources
#Masks4All, #wearamask, Benicia City Council, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Mandatory face coverings, Masks, Omicron variant

ALERT – On December 7, the Benicia City Council will make a potentially life-or-death decision

With Winter coming and the Omicron variant looming, the City Council’s Dec. 7 mask mandate vote is crucial

Stephen Golub, Benicia – A Promised Land: Politics. Policy. America as a Developing Country.

On Dec. 7, the City Council will make a potentially life-or-death decision: whether to extend Benicia’s indoor mask mandate. If it fails to do so, the mandate will end that evening.

Such a failure will be a de facto vote for Covid and against public health. Here are a few of the many reasons why:

  1. The omicron variant is here. More specifically, the first case of this new, potentially dangerous Covid variant has been detected in San Francisco, in a vaccinated individual. https://www.sfchronicle.com/health/article/First-U-S-omicron-case-found-in-San-Francisco-16666493.php  The World Health Organization warns that it “poses a ‘very high’ global risk because of the possibility that it spreads more easily and might resist vaccines and immunity in people who were infected with previous strains.” https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/11/29/1059723751/omicron-variant-latest-high-risk-world-health-organization  I don’t want to sound too alarmist, since we will not know until later this month (at the earliest) whether omicron is a false alarm or a five-alarm fire. But that’s all the more reason to be cautious and maintain the mandate.
  2. Winter is coming. It brings the likelihood of a surge in Covid cases and resulting deaths due to more people being indoors and at holiday gatherings. We’ve seen last winter’s Covid wave and other waves caused or exacerbated by relaxing precautions prematurely, even after vaccines were made available. The Council must learn from experience and not make that mistake. And again, it’s best to err on the side of caution.
  3. The overwhelming consensus among scientific studies and experts is that face masks help protect against Covid, even for the vaccinated. Further information and links to the research can be found at The Benicia Independent blog, including its reposting of the excellent letter Dr. Richard Fleming of Benicia sent to the Council last month (https://beniciaindependent.com/open-letter-to-benicia-city-council-dr-richard-fleming-on-mask-mandate/) and my own letter at that time (https://beniciaindependent.com/10-reasons-to-extend-benicias-face-mask-mandate/). The pro-mask/mandate consensus has been further represented by almost all Bay Area counties’ health officials, the State health department, the CDC, the Napa-Solano Medical Society, thousands of medical and public health authorities and the numerous Benicia-based medical and public health experts who have called in to Council meetings in support of the mandate. The one partial exception to this overwhelming consensus is the Solano Country health officer. But as Dr. Fleming’s letter points out, he has not provided any data in support of his position.

Those wishing to let the Council members know of your opinion on the masks mandate may contact them at:

You can also contact City Clerk Lisa Wolfe, LWolfe@ci.benicia.ca.us, who forwards emails on such matters to the Council and staff.

If interested in participating in the December 7 meeting via Zoom or call-in, the Office of City Manager Eric Upson will have the relevant information, at 707-746-4200 or EUpson@ci.benicia.ca.us.

Stephen Golub