Special Report

This Is the County in the Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA Metro Area With the Most COVID-19

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As the delta variant continues to surge, COVID-19 continues to spread through the population. To date, there have been 41,395,400 reported cases of the virus nationwide — and that number is growing every day.

In the Des Moines-West Des Moines metropolitan area, located in Iowa, a total of 90,265 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 14,233 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — above the national rate of 12,653 cases per 100,000 people.

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

The broader Des Moines metro area comprises five counties or county equivalents, which can include independent cities — and of them, Dallas County has the most COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 12,746 infections in Dallas County, or 15,173 for every 100,000 people.

A relatively high infection rate does not necessarily mean COVID-19 related fatalities per capita are higher in Dallas County than they are across all of the Des Moines area, however. There have been a total of 121 coronavirus deaths for every 100,000 people in Dallas County, compared to 145 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Des Moines-West Des Moines metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of Sept. 17, 2021.

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

Rank Geography COVID cases per 100,000 people Total cases Deaths per 100,000 people Total deaths
1 Dallas County, IA 15,173 12,746 121 102
2 Polk County, IA 14,199 67,341 142 672
3 Warren County, IA 13,896 6,859 188 93
4 Guthrie County, IA 12,938 1,381 300 32
5 Madison County, IA 12,196 1,938 126 20

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