Special Report

COVID-19: This is the Least Dangerous County in the Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR Metro Area

Samuel Stebbins

Published: June 18, 2021 5:00 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 Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway metropolitan area, located in Arkansas, a total of 75,629 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 10,297 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — in line with the national rate of 10,133 cases per 100,000 people.

Though per capita cases of COVID-19 are closely in line with the national per capita infection rate in Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, there are still parts of the metro area where the per capita infection rate is relatively low.

The broader Little Rock metro area comprises six counties or county equivalents — and of them, Perry County in Arkansas has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 847 infections in Perry County, or 8,206 for every 100,000 people.

Not only does Perry County have the lowest per capita infection rate in the Little Rock metro area, it also has a relatively low per capita fatality rate.

There have been a total of 97 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Perry County, below the 160 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway metro area.

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

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