Coronavirus Spread In Baltimore County: See Your Risk Of Exposure

BALTIMORE COUNTY, MD — Maryland is in the middle of a significant surge in coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths. Officials have enacted guidelines dictating how many people can gather indoors and outdoors in light of Thanksgiving and other upcoming social events, considering the high rate of coronavirus infections.

Baltimore County is currently in a modified Stage Three of the state’s recovery plan. Under Baltimore County’s latest executive order, indoor social gatherings of more than 10 people and outdoor social gatherings of more than 25 people are prohibited, effective Nov. 15. Social gatherings include, but are not limited to, family gatherings, parties, cookouts, parades, festivals, conventions, fundraisers and other gatherings not associated with operating or patronizing a business. Social gatherings do not includes restaurants, businesses, private schools, child care, or other establishments where existing, specific state orders are already in place.

Under Maryland’s latest executive order, operations at restaurants have decreased from 75 to 50 percent capacity, with appropriate distancing, and follow strict public health requirements consistent with the CDC, FDA and the National Restaurant Association, effective Nov 11. Restaurants and bars must close by 10 p.m. each evening.

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 Wednesday, if you were to attend an event with 15 people in Baltimore County, there would be a 20 percent chance that someone at the event would have the virus, according to the COVID-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool.

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