Earlier this week, Montgomery County’s Community Covid-19 Level was back up to ‘High’, according to the county’s Covid-19 surveillance dashboard. The CDC, however, still had Montgomery County at the ‘Medium’ level. The community levels are based on metrics released by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on February 25, 2022, enabling communities and individuals to make better decisions based on their local context and unique needs.
After many publicly questioned the discrepancy between Montgomery County’s numbers and the CDC’s numbers for the county, the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services tweeted the following:
Data inconsistencies btw County & CDC have occurred from time to time, esp. when we hovered between levels. We apologize for any confusion. Bottom line-there is no change to current COVID regulations–safe practices are always recommended.
— Montgomery County DHHS (@MoCoDHHS) July 29, 2022
In a response further explaining the discrepancy, Montgomery County Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Dr. Earl Stoddard, says, “The issue apparently is that the Washington Adventist alternate care sites patients aren’t currently counted by the CDC. County has reached out. That said, admissions dropped today, so my sense is that (as @MoCoDHHS says below), we are hovering around the high/medium border.”
The new “COVID-19 community level” metrics by the CDC are based on three pieces of data:
- new COVID-19 hospitalizations,
- hospital capacity, and
- new COVID-19 cases.
The COVID-19 community level is determined by the higher of the new admissions and inpatient beds metrics, based on the current level of new cases per 100,000 population in the past 7 days. To find out the COVID-19 community level:
- First determine whether a county, state, or territory has fewer than 200 new cases per 100,000 people in the past 7 days or 200 new cases or more per 100,000 people in the past 7 days.
- Then, determine the level (low, medium, or high) for the new admissions and inpatient beds and indicators using the scale for the area’s number for new cases.
- The COVID-19 Community Level is based on the higher of the new admissions and inpatient beds metrics.
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Check Montgomery County’s COVID-19 Community Level.