Coronavirus Spread In Richfield: See Your Risk Of Exposure

RICHFIELD, MN — Minnesota is in the middle of a significant surge in coronavirus cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. The state's top health officials are now asking Minnesotans 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 statewide guidelines, there is a 10-person limit for indoor and outdoor gatherings. All social gatherings must be limited to members of three households or less.

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 Hennepin County, there would be a 46 percent chance that someone at the event would have the virus, according to the COVID-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool.

If you hang out with ten people, the chance drops to 34 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."

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

Amber Fisher, Patch Staff, contributed to this report