COVID-19 levels are down in South Carolina, but Lexington County is still recommended to mask against the virus.

For the first time in eight weeks, the county’s case rate went down, dropping from 348.45 per 100,000 people last week to 202.51 in the seven days leading up to Jan. 19, according to data released with this week’s COVID Community Levels. The levels are a tool provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that use the latest local data to advise counties how best to combat the virus.

While the case rate is down this week, the county’s level is still high, which triggers a universal recommendation from the CDC and the state Department of Health and Environmental control to mask in indoor public spaces. This is the eighth straight week in which the county has been recommended to mask.

In previous weeks, Lexington’s case rate had risen from 88.37 per 100,000 people to 202.18 to 202.51 to 250.04 to 283.51 to 307.62.

A week after the state posted 23 counties with a high level, that number is down sharply to just three this week, with Lexington joining neighbor Richland County and Union County in the Upstate in grading as high.

22 counties have a medium level this week, including Lexington neighbor Newberry. The other counties that neighbor Lexington (Saluda, Aiken, Orangeburg and Calhoun) graded as low this week.

Lexington’s numbers also went down in the other two metrics that go into calculating Community Levels — new COVID hospital admissions per 100,000 people (14.6 this week, 19.5 last week) and the percentage of staffed inpatient hospital beds in use by COVID patients (6.5% this week, 7.8% last week).