After adding over 1,076,000 new cases throughout the last week, the U.S. now has more than 41.2 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. There have been more than 650,000 COVID-19-related deaths — the highest death toll of any country.

New cases continue to rise at a steady rate. In the past week, there were an average of 49.5 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 Americans — essentially unchanged from the week prior, when there were an average of 45.4 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 people.

While COVID-19 has spread to nearly every part of the country, cities continue to be the sites of major outbreaks. Experts agree that the virus is more likely to spread in group settings where large numbers of people routinely have close contact with one another, such as colleges, nursing homes, bars, and restaurants. Metropolitan areas with a high degree of connectivity between neighborhoods and a large population may be particularly at-risk.

The Kansas City, MO-KS, metro area consists of Jackson County, Johnson County, Clay County, and 11 other counties. In the past week, there were an average of 39.3 new coronavirus cases every day per 100,000 Kansas City residents, less than the national figure. The metro area’s average daily case growth in the most recent week is essentially unchanged from the week prior, when there was an average of 39.0 daily new cases per 100,000 Kansas City residents.

The spread of coronavirus depends on a variety of factors and can vary even between neighboring counties. Within the Kansas City metro area, COVID-19 is growing the fastest in Linn County, Kansas. There were an average of 126.6 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in Linn County during the past week, the most of the 14 counties in Kansas City with available data.

Case growth in the Kansas City metro area varies widely at the county level. In Platte County, for example, there were an average of 12.5 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in the past week — the least of any county in Kansas City and far more than the case growth rate in Linn County.

While Linn County is driving the growth of COVID-19 in the Kansas City area, it does not have the highest incidence of cases overall. As of September 16, there were a total of 13,287.1 confirmed cases per 100,000 residents in Linn County, the third most of the 14 counties in the metro area. For comparison, the U.S. has so far reported 12,697.8 cases per 100,000 Americans nationwide.

In order to slow the spread of COVID-19, city and county governments have ordered the closure of thousands of consumer-facing businesses. These measures have led to widespread job loss and record unemployment. In Linn County, unemployment peaked at 10.2% in April 2020. As of June 2021, the county’s unemployment rate was 5.3%.

To determine the county in every metropolitan area where COVID-19 is growing the fastest, 24/7 Wall St. compiled and reviewed data from state and local health departments. We ranked counties according to the average number of new daily COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the seven days ending September 16. To estimate the incidence of COVID-19 at the metropolitan level, we aggregated data up from the county level using boundary definitions from the U.S. Census Bureau. Population data used to adjust case and death totals came from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2019 American Community Survey and are five-year estimates. Unemployment data is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and is not seasonally adjusted.

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

Rank in MSA	County	Population	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending September. 16	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending September. 9	Cumulative cases per 100,000	Cumulative deaths per 100,000
1	Linn County	9,671	126.6	80.4	13,287.1	N/A
2	Miami County	33,417	100.3	62.4	11,272.7	N/A
3	Bates County	16,296	70.1	62.1	12,475.5	233.2
4	Clinton County	20,500	57.2	36.1	12,785.4	365.9
5	Ray County	22,875	53.6	50.5	11,825.1	179.2
6	Wyandotte County	164,861	48.3	51.0	15,934.0	N/A
7	Cass County	103,597	47.5	45.8	12,555.4	136.1
8	Leavenworth County	80,745	46.1	40.1	11,854.6	N/A
9	Jackson County	696,216	45.4	47.7	15,973.1	193.0
10	Lafayette County	32,597	42.6	43.2	13,185.3	208.6
11	Johnson County	591,506	33.1	33.3	12,198.0	N/A
12	Caldwell County	9,039	21.9	23.5	11,915.0	199.1
13	Clay County	242,516	19.6	18.1	5,587.7	80.0
14	Platte County	100,682	12.5	17.3	5,470.7	54.6

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