Special Report

These are the Counties in the Valdosta, GA Metro Area With the Most COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: July 30, 2021 2:15 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 34,256,300 reported cases of the virus nationwide — and that number is growing every day.

In the Valdosta metropolitan area, located in Georgia, a total of 16,074 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 11,119 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — above the national rate of 10,471 cases per 100,000 people.

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

The broader Valdosta metro area comprises four counties or county equivalents, which can include independent cities — and of them, Echols County has the most COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 486 infections in Echols County, or 12,168 for every 100,000 people.

Not only does Echols County have the most COVID-19 infections per capita in the Valdosta 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 225 coronavirus deaths for every 100,000 people in Echols County, compared to 202 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Valdosta metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of July 28, 2021.

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