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, Coconino, Gila, La Paz, Maricopa, Mohave, Navajo, Pinal, Washington, Yavapai and Yuma.

Medium level: Greenlee and Santa Cruz.

Low level: Cochise, Graham, Pima.

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 July 13

• Following a long period in which new reports of cases were relatively consistent, the number of cases announced in the U.S. each day is again on the rise.

• The daily case average grew to more than 129,000 on Tuesday, and cases are rising in more than 40 states. Since cases have always been an undercount, it is likely that the true number of cases is far higher — particularly since test positivity rates are also increasing sharply nationwide.

• These increases come as the BA.5 variant, believed to be the most transmissable variant yet of the coronavirus, is emerging as the country's dominant virus strain.

• Hospitalizations are also rising in the U.S. That pattern is similar to hospitalization surges seen earlier this summer in countries where BA.5 first began to circulate. More than 37,000 people are in American hospitals with the coronavirus on an average day, an increase of 17 percent since the start of the month.

• Reporting on deaths tied to the coronavirus is volatile at the moment, partly because of gaps in reporting over recent holidays. About 400 deaths are being reported each day nationwide, down from more than 2,600 a day at the height of the Omicron surge.

What the BA.5 Subvariant Could Mean for the United States

The most transmissible variant yet of the coronavirus is threatening a fresh wave of infections in the United States, even among those who have recovered from the virus fairly recently.