COVID Risk Level Map: Here’s Where COVID Risk is Highest and Lowest in New England

Most New England counties are at a medium to low risk level for COVID-19 transmission, new CDC data shows, but there are some high risk communities as well.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a new map that shows the risk level of COVID-19 by county in every state, with less of a focus on positive test results and more on what’s happening at hospitals.

The map was launched Friday in conjunction with the agency's new recommendations, which determined that most healthy Americans, including students, can safely remove their masks.

Top Boston doctors talk about mask mandates in schools as well as a new study that found Pfizer’s COVID vaccine for 5-11 year-olds offers almost no protection against infection on NBC10 Boston’s weekly “COVID Q&A” series.

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The CDC is offering a color-coded map — with counties designated as orange, yellow or green — to help guide local officials and residents.

In green counties, local officials can drop any indoor masking rules. Yellow means people at high risk for severe disease should be cautious. Orange designates places where the CDC suggests masking should be universal.

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

How a county comes to be designated green, yellow or orange will depend on its rate of new COVID-19 hospital admissions, the share of staffed hospital beds occupied by COVID-19 patients and the rate of new cases in the community.

Here's how New England states are faring:

Massachusetts

All but one county in Massachusetts is colored green, which means low risk for COVID-19 transmission, the exception being Hampshire County, which is yellow for medium risk.

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Maine

All counties in the state of Maine are colored yellow, which indicates medium risk for COVID-19 transmission.

New Hampshire

Most counties in New Hampshire are green, or low risk for COVID-19 transmission, except for Belknap County, Rockingham County and Hillsborough County, which are yellow for medium risk.

Vermont

Vermont is split, with different counties at colored as green, yellow and orange for low, medium and high risk of COVID-19 transmission. Both Rutland County and Bennington County are colored orange to indicate high risk. Grand Isle, Franklin, Lamoille and Caledonia are green, or low risk, while the remainder of Vermont's counties are yellow, or medium risk.

"When we reduce these measures, we increase our vulnerability of having transmission continue to go high," says Jessica Malaty Rivera, an epidemiologist at the Pandemic Prevention Institute. She joined LX News to talk about mask restrictions and what loosening them could mean for the nation.