COVID-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool Available

FAITH NEWS RELEASE: July 23, 2020

Cleveland, TN–Church of God pastors and congregations have been granted access to a county-level calculator that allows the user to estimate risk of COVID-19 exposure at events based upon size. The calculator, developed by Dr. Joshua Weitz and the College of Sciences at Georgia Tech University, is styled as an interactive dashboard and is updated daily.

The COVID-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool can be accessed at https://covid19risk.biosci.gatech.edu/.

After setting the expected size of your event and then selecting the location, the risk assessment tool provides you with a “risk level.” The risk level is defined as the estimated chance (0-100%) that at least one COVID-19 positive individual will be present at your event in the county selected.

“While this calculator provides only an estimated guess as to the possibility of a COVID-positive person being in attendance, it does provide another tool that pastors and churches can use in determining when to proceed with specific events or services,” stated Dr. Timothy M. Hill, General Overseer of the Church of God. “Although it is not perfect, the calculator hopefully will provide rationale for decisions to either go forward or not go forward with certain gatherings.”

The Church of God’s Coronavirus Task Force continues to make available resource information and tools to churches during this pandemic.