Special Report

This is the County in the Tuscaloosa, AL Metro Area With the Most COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: July 25, 2021 3:15 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 33,741,500 reported cases of the virus nationwide — and that number is growing every day.

In the Tuscaloosa metropolitan area, located in Alabama, a total of 31,107 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 12,886 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — above the national rate of 10,313 cases per 100,000 people.

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

The broader Tuscaloosa metro area comprises three counties or county equivalents, which can include independent cities — and of them, Hale County has the most COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 2,295 infections in Hale County, or 15,416 for every 100,000 people.

Not only does Hale County have the most COVID-19 infections per capita in the Tuscaloosa area, it also has more deaths attributable to the virus per capita than the metro area as a whole. There have been a total of 524 coronavirus deaths for every 100,000 people in Hale County, compared to 251 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Tuscaloosa metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of July 20, 2021.

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