Pima County Now Considered Medium Risk For COVID Transmission

TUCSON, AZ —Pima County on Thursday joined the list of Arizona Counties that are no longer considered high risk when it comes to community levels of COVID-19 transmission, according to statistics compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In the CDC's weekly statistics, only two Arizona counties —Yuma and La Paz —remained in the high transmission-level category. The state's other 13 counties, including Pima, are now in the medium category.

A week earlier, Feb. 24, only four Arizona counties —Maricopa, Yavapai, Coconino and Santa Cruz — had been considered in the medium category of community levels of COVID-19 transmission.

According to the CDC, residents in counties that are at the medium community level of COVID-19 transmission, can consider going without masks in public indoor settings.

However, the CDC said that anyone who is at risk for severe illness should talk to their healthcare provider about whether they should wear a mask and take other precautions.

Regardless of local conditions, people should wear a mask if they have COVID-19 symptoms or a positive test or have been exposed to someone with COVID-19, the CDC said.

The CDC has consistently measured COVID-19 community levels using three metrics: new COVID-19 admissions per 100,000 population in the past 7 days, the percent of staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients, and total new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population in the past 7 days.

However, the agency's new guidelines for assessing community risk released on Feb. 25, weigh hospitalizations for COVID-19 and the proportion of beds occupied by COVID-19 patients in local hospitals more heavily than rates of new infections alone.

"As the virus continues to circulate in our communities, we must focus our metrics beyond just cases in the community and direct our efforts toward protecting people at high risk for severe illness and preventing COVID-19 from overwhelming our hospitals and our healthcare system," said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, when announcing the updated guidelines on Feb. 25.

Walensky said Thursday that more than 90 percent of the U.S. population is in a location with a low or medium COVID-19 community level.

Pima County's indoor mask mandate actually had expired Monday.

The Pima County Board of Supervisors had re-implemented the mask mandate in December when cases of the omicron variant of COVID-19 were rising sharply.

But the board voted 3-2 on Feb. 15 against extending the face mask requirement for another month, allowing it to expire at the end of February.