ATLANTA — With many states seeing a decline in COVID-19 cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched a new website to help individual communities decide how to prevent the spread of COVID-19 based on the amount of risk where they live.
This new system is a color-coded map that assesses a county’s risk level of contracting COVID-19.
Each county is given a risk level of low, medium, or high based on the number of hospital beds being used, hospital admissions and the total number of cases in the community. The CDC then offers suggestions on how to protect yourself and others from within that community.
Suggestions range from getting tested in communities with low levels to mask recommendations for those in medium and high counties.
Last month, the CDC no longer required masks to be worn on buses or vans operated by public or private school systems, including early care and education/child care programs. Since then, many states have removed their mask mandates.
“Anybody is certainly welcome to wear a mask at any time if they feel safer wearing a mask," CDC Director Rochelle Walensky explained in a news briefing. "We want to make sure our hospitals are okay and people are not coming in with severe disease. ...Anyone can go to the CDC website, find out the volume of disease in their community and make that decision.”
You can find your county's risk level on the CDC’s Covid-19 by County Map website by selecting your state and county.