Solano County COVID-19 Community Level 'High': CDC

SOLANO COUNTY, CA — Solano County's current COVID-19 Community Level is "High," according to a new tool announced by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC.

COVID-19 Community Levels were designed to help communities decide what prevention steps to take based on the latest data, the CDC said Monday in an email.

To learn their county level, community members can go to the CDC website and use the COVID-19 County Check. Levels can be low, medium, or high, and are determined by looking at hospital beds being used, hospital admissions, and the total number of new COVID-19 cases in an area.

Solano County's community level was deemed high based on CDC data from Feb. 24. The county had 604 active COVID-19 cases Monday, 39 people hospitalized with the virus and 24 percent of the county's intensive care units beds available. To date, Solano County has had 396 deaths related to the virus and 79,444 total coronavirus cases, with 3,015 total cases in the city of Benicia.

When the level is "high," here are the prevention steps suggested by the CDC:

• Wear a mask indoors in public
• Stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccines
• Get tested if you have symptoms
• Additional precautions may be needed for people at high risk for severe illness

Some community settings such as schools and congregate settings might include additional layers of prevention (e.g., physical distancing, contact tracing) based on information and data about the characteristics of the setting, according to the CDC.

Layered prevention strategies such as these can help limit severe disease and reduce the potential for strain on the healthcare system, the CDC said.