CDC launches new way to measure trends of COVID, flu and more for 2024

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has launched a new way for Americans to look up how high or low levels of viruses like COVID-19 and flu are in their local area for 2024.

This year's new "community snapshot" is the CDC's latest attempt to repackage its data in one place for Americans deciding when to take extra precautions recommended in its guidelines, like masking or testing, going into the fall and winter.

It centers around a sweeping new weekly metric called "acute respiratory illness." The metric's debut fulfills a goal laid out by agency officials months ago, aiming to measure the risk of COVID-19 alongside other germs that spread through the air on a single scale from "minimal" to "very high."