# COVID community levels and COVID hospital usage **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [March 7, 2022, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covid-community-levels-and-covid-hospital-usage/960607 "2022-03-07T11:30:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2022, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covid-community-levels-and-covid-hospital-usage/960607/1 "2022-03-07T11:30:58Z")
Last week the CDC introduced “community levels” as a new metric for understanding the intensity of the pandemic: > **[COVID by County](https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/covid-by-county.html)** > > COVID-19 Community Levels help you decide your prevention steps. In contrast to the earlier “**[community transmission levels](https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#county-view?list_select_state=all_states&list_select_county=all_counties&data-type=Risk)**” metric, the new system only has three distinct levels: high, medium, and low. To determine community level, the new metric considers: - new cases per 100K people per seven days - new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100K people per seven days - percent of staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients (7-day average) For the purposes of that last bullet point, who gets counted as a “COVID-19 patient?” Does this only include patients who are being actively treated for COVID symptoms, or does it also include patients who were admitted for other reasons but happened to also test positive for the virus? ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2022, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covid-community-levels-and-covid-hospital-usage/960607/2 "2022-03-07T13:17:22Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Does this only include patients who are being actively treated for COVID symptoms, or does it also include patients who were admitted for other reasons but happened to also test positive for the virus? It also includes patients admitted for other reasons. From this [link](https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/science-briefs/indicators-monitoring-community-levels.html) about how the new measure is calculated: > [@](#): > > The number of _new hospital admissions of patients with COVID-19 per 100,000 population_ reflects the amount of severe COVID-19 disease within the community. _Percent of staffed inpatient beds occupied by patients with COVID-19_ is an indicator of local healthcare system usage and remaining capacity. **Regardless of the reason for inpatient care, the level of usage of clinical care resources to manage patients with COVID-19 reflects impact on the community and signals when urgent implementation of layered prevention strategies might be necessary to prevent overloading the healthcare system**. These indicators are proxies for underlying COVID-19 morbidity and severity of COVID-19 cases, and for the ability of the local healthcare system to support additional people requiring hospital care, including those with COVID-19. In addition, _new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population in the past 7 days_ serves as a leading indicator – most importantly early in a surge — of anticipated healthcare strain. Get in a car accident while asymptomatic, and test positive on admittance, and it still counts for the metric being used. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2022, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covid-community-levels-and-covid-hospital-usage/960607/3 "2022-03-07T16:35:00Z")
> [@DinoR](#): > > Get in a car accident while asymptomatic, and test positive on admittance, and it still counts for the metric being used. Which makes sense - because of the difference in protocols to prevent the spread. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2022, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covid-community-levels-and-covid-hospital-usage/960607/4 "2022-03-07T20:28:09Z")
Yep, that’s what happened to my uncle. He went in for a swollen leg. He tested positive but never became symptomatic. But he had to be isolated differently. And dad, who drove him, had to isolate and get tested 5 days later. Fortunately, dad had insisted on masks, and we’d convinced Uncle to get vaccinated, so dad tested negative.