Risk Of Coronavirus Spread Drops In Stillwater

STILLWATER, MN — Coronavirus cases, hospitalizations, and deaths have steadily declined in Minnesota since surging in November and early December. As a result, the risk of exposure in Stillwater and other parts of Washington County has dropped significantly.

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.

This 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.

In mid-December, if you were to attend an event with 15 people in Washington County, there would be a 44 percent chance that someone at the event would have the virus, according to the COVID-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool.

If you hung out with ten people, the chance dropped to 32 percent.

As of Jan. 5, if you were to attend an event with 15 people in Washington County, there would be a 19 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 13 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.

Also read: Coronavirus: Walz To Discuss Loosening Restrictions Wednesday

Amber Fisher, Patch Staff, contributed to this report