Florida Counties - High Covid Levels, Mask Wearing Recommended

LABELLE, FL. -- Most Florida's counties are now on the CDC's list of "high community level" COVID-19, and mask wearing indoors in public is recommended now by the CDC. The number of infections, deaths and hospitalizations are increasing over the last month.

All counties in Central and Southern Florida are are "high" levels according to the CDC's latest statistics as of Thursday night, exceptions being Hendry, Glades, Manatee, and Hardee counties which have "medium" levels up from "low" levels last week.

States surrounding Florida and SW states are generally still at low community levels with some increases to "medium" levels.

The CDC recommends counties with "high" levels the following:

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

"Community Transmission" is rated "high" for all of Florida counties and 79% of the U.S., up 10% since last week and is defined as new cases per 100,000 persons in the past 7 days of 100 or more OR Percentage of positive NAATs tests during the past 7 day 10% or more. 

See above Community Transmission graphic or click The community transmission map  

Check your county and recommendations here:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html

Editor's note: The CDC website is almost not useable to search for information as the pages we found are slow loading and complicated with way too many links to click to find one's way.