COVID-19 community levels: 7/15/2022

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, high level counties are Apache, Clark, Mohave, and Navajo.

Medium levels counties are Cochise, Coconino, Gila, La Paz, Maricopa, Pinal, Pima, Washington, Yavapai and Yuma.

Low level counties are Graham, Greenlee, and Santa Cruz.

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.

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 July 7

  • The number of known cases announced in the U.S. each day remains relatively stable, but rising test positivity rates and the emerging dominance of the BA.5 variant suggest that many places around the country are experiencing new outbreaks of infections.

  • The number of new cases reported each day has always been an undercount, and numbers are especially low this week due to reporting delays caused by the Fourth of July. Despite these depressed figures, more than half the states are seeing higher daily cases today than two weeks ago. Even New York and New Jersey, where conditions had been improving throughout June, are now in the midst of modest increases.

  • Hospitalizations have increased steadily in recent weeks. On average, there are more than 33,000 people in American hospitals with coronavirus on a given day — the highest national average since early March.

  • Fatality data is also in flux after the holiday, but trends remain promising for now. Fewer than 400 deaths are currently reported each day, down from more than 2,600 a day at the height of the Omicron surge.