Durham moves from low to medium COVID risk on CDC's transmission map

Durham and Alamance are the only counties in North Carolina at medium risk. The rest of the state is at low risk, a trend consistent with most U.S. states, which feature all or many counties at low risk.

An outlier state, most of New York is at high risk for community spread, with some counties at medium and low risk.

Durham Public Health made the announcement on Twitter Wednesday, although the CDC map still shows Durham County at low risk.

The health department asked community members to take precautions, including masking indoors, getting COVID-19 vaccines or boosters if you haven't yet done so, and getting tested and isolating if you show any symptoms.

Durham said the BA.2 BA.2.12.1 subvariants account for most new cases in the county.

The CDC considers a county low risk if it reports fewer than 200 new cases per 100,000 people in the last seven days while maintaining a rate of less than 10 new COVID-19-related hospital admissions in that same week.