What color is your county and state?
The Harvard Global Health Institute released an interactive map on Wednesday that shows the risk of contracting the coronavirus based on daily new cases per 100,000 people.
Based on Harvard's guidelines, three US states need to implement stay-at-home orders, while an additional 13 should consider them.
The map has four colors – green, yellow, orange and red – to demonstrate the risk by county and state. The map shows three states – Arizona, Florida and Mississippi – in the red for where infections are high. Just two states – Hawaii and Vermont—are in the green. While Hawaii requires face coverings in public setting such as retailers despite being one of only two states without community spread, the three states in red have not implemented mandatory face coverings in public.
"We've left it to the locals to make decisions about whether they want to use coercive measures or impose any type of criminal penalties. We're not going to do that statewide," Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said on Tuesday.
According to Harvard Global Health Institute, when areas are shaded red, stay-at-home orders become necessary. So far, Arizona, Florida and Mississippi have not reinstituted stay-at-home orders despite being in the red. Arizona and Florida did announce that most bars can no longer serve alcohol on site.
“The public needs clear and consistent information about COVID risk levels in different jurisdictions for personal decision-making, and policy-makers need clear and consistent visibility that permits differentiating policy across jurisdictions”, said Danielle Allen, director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. “We also collectively need to keep focused on what should be our main target: a path to near zero case incidence.”
Thirteen states are in the orange, meaning those states should consider either implementing stay-at-home orders or conduct rigorous tracing programs, Harvard said..
“Local leaders need and deserve a unified approach for suppressing COVID-19, with common metrics so that they can begin to anticipate and get ahead of the virus, rather than reacting to uncontrolled community spread”, says Beth Cameron, Vice President for Global Biological Policy and Programs at the Nuclear Threat Initiative and a member of the COVID-Local.org team. “Unless and until there is a whole of government response, with measurable progress communicated similarly and regularly across every state and locality, U.S. leaders will be left to react to the chaos of the virus - rather than being able to more effectively target interventions to suppress it. “
COVID RISK LEVEL: GREEN
- Less than one case per 100,000 people
- On track for containment
- Monitor with viral testing and contact tracing program
COVID RISK LEVEL: YELLOW
- 1-9 cases per 100,000 people
- Community spread
- Rigorous test and trace programs advised
COVID RISK LEVEL: ORANGE
- 10-24 cases per 100,000 people
- Accelerated spread
- Stay-at-home orders and/or rigorous test and trace programs advised
COVID RISK LEVEL: RED
- 25 or more cases per 100,000 people
- Tipping point
- Stay-at-home orders necessary
Click here to view the map.
