See Your Coronavirus Exposure Risk Indoors In Hoover

HOOVER, AL — As the holiday season kicks off and officials warn residents about limiting their interactions with others outside of their own household to curb the spread of the coronavirus, a tool developed by researchers from several universities lets you see your risk of exposure to the virus at an indoor gathering.

The tool shows the estimated chance — between 0 and 100 percent — that you'll encounter at least one person with the coronavirus at an event in your county. You can reduce the risk by wearing a mask, distancing and gathering outdoors in smaller groups, researchers said.

As of Wednesday, if you were to attend an event with at least 15 people in Jefferson County, there’s a 32 percent chance that someone in the group could expose you to the virus, according to the COVID-19 Risk Assessment Planning Tool. If your gathering has 10 people, that risk would be 22 percent.

In Shelby County, the risk for a 15-person gathering is 31 percent, and for a 10-person gathering is 22 percent.

Two Georgia Institute of Technology professors led the creation of the project, and their team included researchers from Stanford University and the Applied Bioinformatics Laboratory.

"By default we assume there are five times more cases than are being reported," the research team said in a statement. "In places with less testing availability, that bias may be higher."

>> Access the COVID-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool here.

Alabama's health officials warned the state that the holidays, which usually include family gatherings, could worsen the spread of COVID-19. Dr. Scott Harris and Dr. Mary McIntyre of the Alabama Department of Public Health addressed the issue Monday.

"We don't have to have a terrible December, but I am worried about what we're going to see," Harris said at Monday's news conference. "This is a time for people to be vigilant, this is a time to be careful and to be thinking about what you're doing. We are not going to get a do-over on this."

McIntyre recommended limiting gatherings for Thanksgiving to no more than 10 people, and to hold gatherings outside, use disposable plates, cups and utensils to prevent the spread of germs.

Patch editor Amber Fisher contributed to this report