Special Report

COVID-19: This is the Least Dangerous County in the Grand Rapids-Wyoming, MI Metro Area

Samuel Stebbins

Published: June 18, 2021 3:45 am

Despite the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination efforts, the novel coronavirus continues to spread through the United States. To date, 33,151,678 Americans have been infected with the virus — and 594,888 have died as a result. On a per capita basis, the U.S. has one of the highest known infections rates in the world.

In the Grand Rapids-Wyoming metropolitan area, located in Michigan, a total of 118,078 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 11,241 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — above the national rate of 10,133 cases per 100,000 people.

Though per capita cases of COVID-19 are higher in Grand Rapids-Wyoming than they are nationwide, there are still parts of the metro area where the per capita infection rate is relatively low.

The broader Grand Rapids metro area comprises four counties or county equivalents — and of them, Montcalm County in Michigan has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 6,076 infections in Montcalm County, or 9,613 for every 100,000 people.

Though Montcalm County has the lowest per capita infection rate in the Grand Rapids metro area, its per capita fatality rate is disproportionately high.

There have been a total of 179 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Montcalm County, above the 139 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Grand Rapids-Wyoming metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of June 16, 2021.

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