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, La Paz, Mohave, Navajo, and Yuma.

Medium level: Cochise, Coconino, Gila, Graham, Pima, Santa Cruz and Washington.

Low level: Greenlee, Maricopa, Pinal, and Yavapai.

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 August 4

• Known daily case counts have begun to tick downward in recent days, accompanied by similar declines in test positivity and hospitalizations so far this month.

• The virus is still infecting around 120,000 people each day, a higher level than was reported for much of the spring and summer — and an undercount, since most at-home tests are not included in official data. Yet the recent declines suggest that conditions may be improving.

• Cases have decreased since mid-July in more than half of all states, and in the states where cases are increasing, the changes are small. Only a few states have seen cases increase by 20 percent or more in the past two weeks.

• The change in hospitalizations is of particular note. After increasing steadily from April through July, the number of Americans hospitalized with coronavirus has decreased slightly throughout this week. If that trend holds, it would mark a significant reversal.

• Deaths have increased modestly in recent weeks, but they remain lower than they have been at most points in the pandemic. Fewer than 500 deaths are currently announced each day, down from more than 2,600 per day at the height of the Omicron surge.