COVID-19 Community Levels is a tool to help communities decide what prevention steps to take based on the latest data.

According to the CDC’s COVID-19 Community Levels, medium level counties are Clark, La Paz, and Yuma.

Low level counties are Apache, Cochise, Coconino, Gila, Graham, Greenlee, Maricopa, Mohave, Navajo, Pima, Pinal, Santa Cruz, Washington, Yavapai, and Yuma.

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

• Stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccines

• Get tested if you have symptoms

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.

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.

State of the virus

Update for March 17

• Virus activity continues to wane across the United States, with hospitalizations and new case reports both reaching their lowest levels since last summer.

• Coronavirus hospitalizations have fallen more than 80 percent from their January peak, to around 25,000 from more than 150,000. The number of patients in intensive care units has also fallen.

• Progress has not been as swift with regard to deaths. Around 1,200 deaths continue to be announced most days, well below the peak of the Omicron wave but still high. More than 965,000 deaths have been attributed to Covid-19 in the United States.

• Every state is in far better shape than it was at the height of Omicron, and almost every state continues to see significant declines in daily case reports and hospitalizations.

• New case reports are down more than 70 percent in the last two weeks in New Hampshire, Louisiana and Montana. Those states have also seen hospitalizations decline at least 50 percent in that period.