COVID-19 community levels: March 3, 2022

We introduce the CDC’s COVID-19 Community Levels, a new tool to help communities decide what prevention steps to take based on the latest data.

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.

High level counties in our synod include: Apache, Cochise, Gila, Graham, Greenlee, La Paz, Navajo, Mohave, Pima, Pinal, Yuma.

Medium level counties are Clark, Coconino, Maricopa, Santa Cruz, Washington, Yavapai, and Yuma counties. (Links go to most recent county at The New York Times.)

At all levels including the low level, prevention steps include:

At the medium level, if you are at high risk for severe illness, talk to your healthcare provider about whether you need to wear a mask and take other precautions.

At the high level, wear a mask indoors in public. Additional precautions may be needed for people at high risk for severe illness.

State of the virus

  • The national outlook continues to improve rapidly, with new cases, hospitalizations and deaths all continuing to fall.

  • Daily case reports have fallen more than 90 percent from their January peak. Case numbers are as low as they have been since November, before the Omicron variant took hold.

  • About 60,000 people with the coronavirus are hospitalized nationally, down from about 160,000 in January. The number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care units has fallen more than 40 percent in the last two weeks.

  • For the first time in more than a month, the country is averaging fewer than 2,000 newly reported deaths a day. Despite the steep decline, thousands of Covid-19 deaths continued to be announced each week.

  • Almost every state is seeing significant declines in cases and hospitalizations. New case reports are down at least 70 percent in the last two weeks in 12 states, including California, Indiana, Nevada and Wyoming.

  • Most states that still had mask mandates have moved to lift or significantly scale back those requirements.

News, Grand Canyon SynodBrian FlatgardCoronavirusComment