On February 25, 2022 the CDC released a new COVID-19 rating system that will help associations that use CDC guidelines for their in-person meeting strategies. Given the volume of current events in the news, we wanted to highlight this specific development to ensure you were aware of the change.  

The new CDC system rates the “COVID-19 Community Levels” on a county-by-county basis as "high," "medium" or "low" based on indicators such as hospital occupancy. These Community Level ratings correspond to COVID-19 prevention strategies. For example, masking is recommended when the Community Level is rated as “high,” but not for “medium” or “low.”  The CDC estimates that approximately 70% of the population currently lives in a county that has a medium or low Community Level.

The CDC notes that “high levels of vaccination and population immunity from both vaccination and infections means the risk of medically significant disease, hospitalization, and death from COVID-19 is greatly reduced for most people."  

The new rating system shifts priorities and uses hospitalization data as key indicators. The primary goals are having a fully functioning healthcare system and preventing communities and hospitals from being overwhelmed. With that in mind, the lower the hospitalization rates, the more favorable the county's rating will be. 

Resources

• Use this link  to look up the Community Level for a specific county, which includes a bullet-point summary of recommended strategies.
• Use this link for a full explanation of the new ratings system and a detailed list of recommended safety strategies.  This page also provides a data map and data export for all counties in the US.