SEATTLE — A new tool developed by Georgia Tech allows people to look up their risk of encountering COVID-19 at event, based on the county they live in.
The interactive map allows users to choose a county anywhere in the United States, choose the event size (anywhere from 10 people to 10,000), and then calculate the risk that at least one COVID-19 positive person will be present.
For example, in King County, the tool calculates that at a 100-person event, there is a 60% chance that someone in attendance will be COVID-19 positive. At a gathering with only 10 people, that risk goes down to 9%.
In Pierce County, the tool shows there is a risk level of 57% at a gathering with 100 people in attendance, and a risk level of 8% at a gathering with only 10 people. The risk level is even lower in Snohomish County. According to the interactive map, there is a 48% chance someone will test positive at a 100-person gathering and a 6% risk at a gathering with only 10 people.
Alternatively, the risk is 94% or above at gatherings with 100 people in the five Washington counties still in a modified Phase 1 of reopening: Benton, Chelan, Douglas, Franklin, and Yakima.
The interactive map is based on data from The COVID Tracking Project at The Atlantic, which pulls daily data on COVID-19 testing and patients from all 50 states. It's also based on 2019 U.S. Census data.
The risk assessment tool was developed by researchers at Georgia Tech's Institute of Technology, Biological Sciences (GT-BIOS) and the Applied Bioinformatics Laboratory (ABiL).
