Special Report

This is the County in the Jefferson City, MO Metro Area With the Most COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: June 11, 2021 3:45 am

Though vaccine distribution is well underway across the United States, the novel coronavirus continues to spread through the population. To date, there have been 33,056,400 reported cases of the virus nationwide — and that number is growing every day.

In the Jefferson City metropolitan area, located in Missouri, a total of 17,685 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 11,700 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — above the national rate of 10,104 cases per 100,000 people.

The higher than average per capita COVID-19 infection rate across Jefferson City is being driven by a high concentration of the virus in one area in particular.

The broader Jefferson City metro area comprises four counties or county equivalents, which can include independent cities — and of them, Osage County has the most COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 1,645 infections in Osage County, or 12,079 for every 100,000 people.

A relatively high infection rate does not necessarily mean COVID-19 related fatalities per capita are higher in Osage County than they are across all of the Jefferson City area, however. There have been a total of 117 coronavirus deaths for every 100,000 people in Osage County, compared to 151 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Jefferson City metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of June 9, 2021.

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