COVID Data Tracker Weekly Review: Interpretive Summary for February 25, 2022

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Your COVID-19 Community Level
• Corporate Authors:
  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.)
• Description:
  Interpretive Summary for February 25, 2022
  
  Your COVID-19 Community Level
  
  CDC is updating the way it monitors COVID-19’s impact on our communities. Widespread availability of vaccines and testing, advances in treatments, and increasing levels of immunity in the population through vaccination or previous infection have moved the COVID-19 pandemic to a new phase. While we can’t prevent all cases of COVID-19, we can continue to limit the spread and protect those who are most at risk of severe illness.
  
  Given this new phase of the pandemic, CDC is launching a new tool to monitor COVID-19 Community Levels. Each county’s COVID-19 Community Level is ranked as low, medium, or high (find your county’s level). The COVID-19 Community Level map where you can find your county’s level will be updated regularly with new data. Your community’s level is determined by a combination of:
  
  • How many people with COVID-19 have been admitted into local hospitals in the last week
  
  • How many local hospital beds are filled with COVID-19 patients
  
  • How many new COVID-19 cases the county has had in the last week
  
  CDC recommends certain prevention measures—such as wearing masks indoors—when COVID-19 Community Levels are high enough to strain the healthcare system and when needed to protect those at increased risk of severe illness. This allows people to take a break from masks and other measures when risk is low and reach for them again if things are getting worse. The community level metrics, which focus on the number of severe cases that require hospital care and use healthcare resources, and thus are a measure of more serious disease, provide a better picture of COVID-19’s impact on the health of individual people and communities. The COVID-19 Community Level metrics will help people and public health authorities decide which prevention measures to take.
  
  Get vaccinated if you’re eligible (everyone 5 and older is eligible), wear a mask indoors in areas where the COVID-19 Community Level is high, increase ventilation in indoor spaces, and stay home when sick. If you aren’t up to date on your vaccinations, find a vaccine.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Communicable Disease Control Community-Acquired Infections/epidemiology Community-Acquired Infections/transmission Community Health Services Coronavirus Infections COVID-19 Vaccines/administration & Dosage COVID-19/epidemiology COVID-19/transmission Disease Transmission, Infectious Forecasting Hospitalization Hospitals Hospitals, County Pandemics Public Health Public Health Practice Public Health Surveillance Vaccination Coverage

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• Series:
  CDC COVID Data Tracker Weekly Review
• Document Type:
  Text
• Collection(s):
  Stephen B. Thacker CDC Library
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:510705fe826c7f5b13a92abbcdd537db25cc20e7e0c68f649b7082042ad81206b031e4bd0ca9e0c16d3c7aa74d49a205cf1d11c026cddd1e54f6db8310cba78f
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/114900/cdc_114900_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.06 MB ]