What’s your COVID risk? This website will tell you

If you’re thinking about going out to a public gathering, the best advice is this: Don’t.

COVID-19 is spreading like never before in Michigan and the state’s health department has just issued new orders limiting outdoor gatherings to no more than 25 people.

But if that doesn’t deter you, you may want to know your risk of running into someone with COVID-19. That’s where the COVID-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool come in.

Developed by scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology, the tool takes data such as coronavirus positivity rates and gathering size and spits out a color-coded map showing the relative risk of coming face-to-face with an infected person.

For an example: Imagine you wanted to attend an event with 25 people in Kalamazoo County. Based on data from November 17, the tool says you will have a 52% chance of finding someone with COVID-19.

The tool uses some assumptions to make its calculations. Among them, it predicts there are between 5% and 10% more people with the coronavirus than are being tested, and it includes those numbers in its calculations.

So, before you plan a large Thanksgiving gathering with family and friends, you may want to check the tool.

You can find it here.