Napa County COVID-19 Community Level 'High': CDC

NAPA COUNTY, CA — Napa County's current COVID-19 Community Level is "High," according to a new tool announced by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC.

COVID-19 Community Levels were designed to help communities decide what prevention steps to take based on the latest data, the CDC said Monday in an email.

To learn their county level, community members can go to the CDC website and use the COVID-19 County Check. Levels can be low, medium, or high, and are determined by looking at hospital beds being used, hospital admissions, and the total number of new COVID-19 cases in an area.

Napa County's community level was deemed high based on CDC data from Feb. 24. The county had 965 new COVID-19 cases reported last week but said the true number was likely closer to 100 because of delays in data reporting and processing. As of Monday, there were 102 new coronavirus cases reported in Napa County with nine people hospitalized and 15 percent of the county's intensive care units beds available.

When the level is "high," here are the prevention steps suggested by the CDC:

• Wear a mask indoors in public
• Stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccines
• Get tested if you have symptoms
• Additional precautions may be needed for people at high risk for severe illness

Some community settings such as schools and congregate settings might include additional layers of prevention (e.g., physical distancing, contact tracing) based on information and data about the characteristics of the setting, according to the CDC.

Layered prevention strategies such as these can help limit severe disease and reduce the potential for strain on the healthcare system, the CDC said.