COVID-19 Community Levels is a tool to help communities decide what prevention steps to take based on the latest data.

According to the CDC’s COVID-19 Community Levels, Apache and Navajo are high level counties, with Mohave as a medium level county.

All other synod counties are low level: Apache, Clark, Coconino, Cochise, Gila, Graham, Greenlee, La Paz, Maricopa, Nye, Pima, Pinal, Santa Cruz, Yavapai, Washington, and Yuma.

At all levels including the low level, prevention steps include:

• Stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccines

• Get tested if you have symptoms

At the medium level, if you are at high risk for severe illness, talk to your healthcare provider about whether you need to wear a mask and take other precautions.

At the high level, wear a mask indoors in public. Additional precautions may be needed for people at high risk for severe illness.

Levels can be low, medium, or high and are determined by looking at hospital beds being used, hospital admissions, and the total number of new COVID-19 cases in an area.

State of the virus

Update for November 11

• Cases and hospitalizations continue to rise nationwide, driven in part by a growing outbreak in the Southwest.

• The nation's most rapid growth in hospitalizations with the virus is clustered in that region, with Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico all seeing hospitalization counts increase by more than 30 percent in the past two weeks. Cases in those states are on a similar upward climb, particularly in New Mexico.

• By contrast, daily deaths from the coronavirus are decreasing. Death counts have fallen by 9 percent nationally in recent weeks, to about 325 per day.