After adding over 36,000 new cases on May 13, the U.S. now has more than 32.4 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. There have been more than 570,000 COVID-19-related deaths — the highest death toll of any country.

New cases continue to rise at a steady rate. In the past week, there were an average of 13.6 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 Americans — essentially unchanged from the week prior, when there were an average of 15.3 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 people.

While COVID-19 has spread to nearly every part of the country, cities continue to be the sites of major outbreaks. Experts agree that the virus is more likely to spread in group settings where large numbers of people routinely have close contact with one another, such as colleges, nursing homes, bars, and restaurants. Metropolitan areas with a high degree of connectivity between neighborhoods and a large population may be particularly at-risk.

The Green Bay, WI, metro area consists of Brown County, Oconto County, and Kewaunee County. In the past week, there were an average of 13.3 new coronavirus cases every day per 100,000 Green Bay residents, in line with the national figure. The metro area’s average daily case growth in the most recent week is essentially unchanged from the week prior, when there was an average of 13.2 daily new cases per 100,000 Green Bay residents.

The spread of coronavirus depends on a variety of factors and can vary even between neighboring counties. Within the Green Bay metro area, COVID-19 is growing the fastest in Oconto County. There were an average of 19.4 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in Oconto County during the past week, the most of the three counties in Green Bay with available data.

Case growth in the Green Bay metro area varies at the county level. In Kewaunee County, for example, there were an average of 12.1 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in the past week — the least of any county in Green Bay and more than the case growth rate in Oconto County.

While Oconto County is driving the growth of COVID-19 in the Green Bay area, it does not have the highest incidence of cases overall. As of May 13, there were a total of 13,313.5 confirmed cases per 100,000 residents in Oconto County, the second most of the three counties in the metro area. For comparison, the U.S. has so far reported 9,997.3 cases per 100,000 Americans nationwide.

In order to slow the spread of COVID-19, city and county governments have ordered the closure of thousands of consumer-facing businesses. These measures have led to widespread job loss and record unemployment. In Oconto County, unemployment peaked at 14.4% in April 2020. As of March 2021, the county’s unemployment rate was 5.4%.

To determine the county in every metropolitan area where COVID-19 is growing the fastest, 24/7 Wall St. compiled and reviewed data from state and local health departments. We ranked counties according to the average number of new daily COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the seven days ending May 13. To estimate the incidence of COVID-19 at the metropolitan level, we aggregated data up from the county level using boundary definitions from the U.S. Census Bureau. Population data used to adjust case and death totals came from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2019 American Community Survey and are five-year estimates. Unemployment data is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and is not seasonally adjusted.

These are all the counties in Wisconsin where COVID-19 is slowing (and where it’s still getting worse).

Rank in MSA	County	Population	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending May 13	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending May 6	Cumulative cases per 100,000	Cumulative deaths per 100,000
1	Oconto County	37,646	19.4	13.9	13,313.5	170.0
2	Brown County	261,368	12.6	13.4	13,456.9	110.6
3	Kewaunee County	20,387	12.1	8.9	13,229.0	171.7

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.