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COVID-19 Statistics Dashboard for Singing

Last updated on November 24, 2021

After much discussion and consideration of options, the GNW COVID-19 Response Team settled on using the “daily new cases per 100k” metric as provided by CovidActNow as the indoor congregational singing threshold for ministries operating in Option 2. While we shouldn’t look at any metric in complete isolation, the new daily case count offers a straightforward measure for assessing community-based risk. In this update, we have aligned our guidance better with the existing risk categories that CovidActNow employs. The recommendation for outdoor congregational singing with masks and distancing remains unchanged.

For ministries using this singing guidance, we recommend checking this metric weekly to ascertain the best plan for that week’s events. We suggest choosing a day midweek and maintaining consistency as to when you check. You should expect some movement in your county’s risk level, especially as communities are impacted by future variants which expose new vulnerabilities.

County-based CovidActNow data is now available to view here on this page. Select your county, and updated guidance on singing will appear in addition to other metrics.

The following recommendation, applicable only to Option 2 churches, may be adjusted in the future as we learn more about the impact of COVID-19 variants and the resiliency of communities with a high rate of vaccination.

For {COUNTY} County (borough/census area), the recommendation is Your risk profile is based on your county's data provided by CovidActNow.
  • Daily new cases per 100k: 0.00
  • Infection rate: 0.00
  • Positive test rate: 0.00
  • Vaccinated (1+ dose): 0.00
  • Fully Vaccinated: 0.00
1 If mitigation efforts are rigorously followed, we believe that singing by a small number of vaccinated individuals does not represent a significant increase in risk.  An example of this is an ensemble—a small, predetermined group of singers who agree in advance to safety measures (such as disclosing vaccination status and/or testing) and may be held accountable for these safety practices. This is very different from inviting a small congregation (with the potential for guests and no pre-planning) to sing.

A rationale for the criteria: Understanding the COVID-19 spreads through aerosols (small particulates that can travel significant distances), indoor congregational singing is one of the last activities churches should reengage in. It is not recommended without strict mitigation (beyond CDC guidance) if the "daily new cases per 100k" benchmark in your county is above 1 per 100k. With mitigation in place including masks for all congregants regardless of vaccination status, indoor congregational singing can occur if the "daily new cases per 100k" benchmark remains below 10.

This data is provided by CovidActNow.org under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license. Data from the CovidActNow API used here may differ slightly from the data reported on their website due to differences in their update schedule for their website and API. If you have any issues with this dashboard, please contact Patrick Scriven at pscriven@pnwumc.org.