Coronavirus Spread In Cobb County : See Your Risk Of Exposure

COBB COUNTY, GA — Georgia is in the middle of a significant surge in coronavirus cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. The nation’s top health officials are now asking Georgians to be extremely cautious when gathering for Thanksgiving or other social events, especially when family members may be at risk, given the high rate of coronavirus infections.

Per statewide guidelines, there is a 50-person limit for indoor and outdoor gatherings and residents are strongly encouraged by Gov. Brian Kemp to wear face-coverings. On Tuesday, the state recorded its highest single-day total of positive cases in three months when 3,603 new cases were announced by state health officials.

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 Cobb County, there would be a 16 percent chance that someone at the event would have the virus, according to the COVID-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool. The chances go down to 11 percent with a gathering of 10 people.

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