Coronavirus Spread In Cartersville: See Your Risk Of Exposure

CARTERSVILLE, GA — Georgia is starting to see a significant surge in coronavirus cases, hospitalizations, and deaths — not quite at the level of some Midwestern states but an increase nonetheless.

Many state health officials are now asking Georgians not to gather with other households for Thanksgiving or other social events this month, given the high rate of coronavirus infections.

The official state guidelines aren't quite so strict, however. Per current Georgia guidelines, there is a 50-person limit for indoor gatherings, with social distancing of 6 feet between those attending.

What is your risk of exposure?

Researchers from several universities have created an event risk planning tool for every county in the nation. The map shows the risk of coronavirus transmission based on an event's size and location.

A new 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 Tuesday, if you were to attend an event with 15 people in Bartow County, there would be a 40 percent chance that someone at the event would have the virus, according to the COVID-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool. If you gather with only ten people, the chance drops to 29 percent in Bartow County. Both numbers assume a somewhat lower level of testing in Georgia than in other states.

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."

Use the COVID-19 "Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool" here.

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