Pinole, Hercules COVID-19 Indoor Exposure Risk; Latest Case Count
CONTRA COSTA, CA — As the holiday season kicks off and officials warn residents about limiting their interactions with others outside of their own household to curb the spread of the coronavirus, a tool developed by researchers from several universities lets you see your risk of exposure to the virus at an indoor gathering.
The tool shows the estimated chance — between 0 and 100 percent — that you'll encounter at least one person with the coronavirus at an event in your county. You can reduce the risk by wearing a mask, distancing and gathering outdoors in smaller groups, researchers said.
As of Wednesday, if you were to attend an event with at least 15 people in Contra Costa County, there’s a 13 percent chance that someone in the group could expose you to the virus, according to the COVID-19 Risk Assessment Planning Tool. If your gathering has 10 people, that risk would be nine percent.
Two Georgia Institute of Technology professors led the creation of the project, and their team included researchers from Stanford University and the Applied Bioinformatics Laboratory.
"By default we assume there are five times more cases than are being reported," the research team said in a statement. "In places with less testing availability, that bias may be higher."
Access the COVID-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool here.
Contra Costa County is in the most-restrictive purple tier of the state's four-tiered, color-coded COVID-19 risk system. That means indoor gatherings are not allowed here, but the state permits outdoor gatherings with a maximum of three households, and safety precautions such as wearing masks and maintaining six feet of distance between others who are not in your household.
Public health officials in Contra Costa County and across the Bay Area recommend people keep gatherings "small, short, stable and safe," and ideally close enough to home to avoid long-distance travel.
The safest way to celebrate is with virtual gatherings or at home, officials said.
There were 23,381 COVID-19 cases reported in Contra Costa County as of Wednesday and 260 deaths have been linked to the virus. That's up from 22,625 cases a week ago, county data show. No new deaths have been reported in the past week.
Contra Costa County has seen an average of 13.4 new COVID-19 cases per day over the past week. The test positivity rate has been four percent, on average, over the past week. These data lag by a week.
Here's the breakdown by community:
Alamo: 183 cases, 0 deaths
Antioch: 3,061 cases, 20 deaths
Bay Point: 1,107 cases, 8 deaths
Bethel Island: 17 cases, 0 deaths
Brentwood: 984 cases, 11 deaths
Byron: 32 cases, 0 deaths
Clayton: 105 cases, 1 death
Concord: 2,983 cases, 57 deaths
Crockett: 29 cases, 0 deaths
Danville: 551 cases, 5 deaths
Discovery Bay: 199 cases, 0 deaths
El Cerrito: 197 cases, 3 deaths
El Sobrante: 395 cases, 2 deaths
Hercules: 363 cases, 2 deaths
Kensington: 18 cases, 0 deaths
Lafayette: 239 cases, 0 deaths
Martinez: 529 cases, 3 deaths
Moraga: 103 cases, 1 deaths
Oakley: 765 cases, 7 deaths
Orinda: 177 cases, 11 deaths
Pacheco: 78 cases, 1 death
Pinole: 335 cases, 4 deaths
Pittsburg: 2,481 cases, 19 deaths
Pleasant Hill: 395 cases, 23 deaths
Richmond:4,243 cases, 33 deaths
Rodeo: 164 cases, 1 death
San Pablo: 1,945 cases, 10 deaths
San Ramon: 618 cases, 4 deaths
Walnut Creek: 863 cases, 32 deaths
Other: 222 cases, 2 deaths
Read more safe Thanksgiving gathering tips: Contra Costa Health Officer Issues Thanksgiving Guidance
See the full breakdown of Contra Costa County COVID-19 data.
Amber Fisher contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on the Pinole-Hercules Patch