Going to a New Year’s Eve party in Missouri? This tool lets you calculate COVID risk

The coronavirus pandemic is surging as families and friends continue to gather during the holiday season and New Year’s Eve is just around the corner.

If you’re contemplating a party to bid farewell to 2020, there’s a way to assess the risk of the virus spreading at gatherings in every Missouri county.

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology created a map tool that lets users assess the chances at least one person is positive for COVID-19 at a party.

You can adjust the size of the event from 10 people to 5,000 people and toggle over various counties for the result. Counties in yellow pose the lowest risk while those in dark red are considered to have a risk greater than 99%.

The likelihood can vary widely even in the same metropolitan area. For example, take a look at counties in and around Kansas City. A gathering of 20 people in Jackson County poses a 21% chance at least one attendee has the coronavirus, using data as of Wednesday. Meanwhile, neighboring Cass County has a 37% chance in the same scenario.

“You can reduce the risk that one case becomes many by wearing a mask, distancing, and gathering outdoors in smaller groups,” the Georgia Institute of Technology researchers say.

You can check out the COVID-19 assessment tool here.

In their study published in the journal Nature Human Behavior, the researchers wrote the coronavirus risk rates are updated every day.

“The website provides data-driven information to help individuals and policy makers make prudent decisions (for example, increasing mask-wearing compliance and avoiding larger gatherings) that could help control the spread of SARS-CoV-2, particularly in hard-hit regions,” researchers wrote.