This calculator lets you estimate COVID risk and find effective safety measures for customizable situations. Examples: how risky is a trip to my grocery store? What's the safest way to see a friend? How much would it help to wear a better mask at my workplace?

We created the concept of the "microcovid" as a new quantitative unit for risk. One microCOVID is a one-in-a-million chance of getting COVID.

An activity thatā€™s 20,000 microCOVIDs means that you have a 2% risk of getting COVID every time you do it. An activity thatā€™s 20 microCOVIDs (or 0.002%) is relatively safe, as you could do it every week for a year and still have only accumulated about a 0.1% chance of getting COVID.

You may decide that you're comfortable with taking on a certain amount of COVID risk. You can think about this amount of risk that you're willing to take on as a "risk budget".

For most healthy people who are not in contact with vulnerable groups, we think an annual risk budget of a 1% chance of catching COVID is reasonable - that's a budget of 10,000 microCOVIDs a year. In order to meet this budget, you'd need to stick to a maximum of about 200 microCOVIDs a week.

If you'd like to watch a video walkthrough of how to use the calculator, click here.

see all updatesā€¦

Calculate approximate risk of contracting COVID

Step 1: Characterize community infection

The microCOVID calculator's data source is no longer providing updates on COVID rates. To use the calculator, please look up weekly new cases per 100k in your area and enter it below. Then enter "100,000" in the "total population" box.

We hope to have a more usable version of the interface in place soon. Contact info@microcovid.org with any questions.

If you are in the US, go to covidactnow.org, click your state on the map, then your county. The first number on the screen is "weekly new reported cases per 100k".

Reported prevalence: 0.00%
Adjusted prevalence: 0.00%
%
%
?
%
Characterize community infection first.
Fill in calculator to see risk level
?
0.1% chance of COVID per year (20 microCOVIDs per week) Suggested if you or your close contacts are more vulnerable to COVID.
1% chance of COVID per year (200 microCOVIDs per week) Suggested for healthy people NOT in close contact with more vulnerable people.
3% chance of COVID per year (600 microCOVIDs per week). If you are healthy and prefer to live a riskier lifestyle AND everyone you live with / share air with is willing to do the same.
10% chance of COVID per year (2000 microCOVIDs per week) Use this if you can't avoid risk, but still want to make smart choices. Remember: if you get COVID, you may give it to anyone you come in contact with. Try taking the smallest risk you can to protect them.