After adding over 934,000 new cases throughout the last week, the U.S. now has more than 42.1 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. There have been more than 670,000 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 45.1 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 Americans — essentially unchanged from the week prior, when there were an average of 49.5 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 different neighborhoods and a large population may be particularly at-risk.
The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL, metro area consists of Hillsborough County, Pinellas County, Pasco County, and one other county. In the past week, there were an average of 69.0 new coronavirus cases every day per 100,000 Tampa residents, greater than the national figure. The metro area’s average daily case growth in the most recent week is a decrease from the week prior, when there were an average of 101.2 daily new cases per 100,000 Tampa residents.
The spread of coronavirus depends on a variety of factors and can vary even between neighboring counties. Within the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro area, COVID-19 is growing the slowest in Pinellas County. There were an average of 59.5 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in Pinellas County during the past week, the least of the four counties in Tampa with available data.
Case growth in the Tampa metro area is relatively uniform at the county level. In Pasco County, for example, there were an average of 82.2 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in the past week — the most of any county in Tampa yet relatively in line with the case growth rate in Pinellas County.
Just as Pinellas County has the slowest case growth in the Tampa area, it also has the lowest incidence of cases overall. As of September 23, there were a total of 13,466.4 confirmed cases per 100,000 residents in Pinellas County, the fewest of the four counties in the metro area. For comparison, the U.S. has so far reported 12,985.5 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 Pinellas County, unemployment peaked at 14.1% in April 2020. As of June 2021, the county’s unemployment rate was 4.9%.
To determine the county in every metropolitan area where COVID-19 is growing the slowest, 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 23. To estimate the incidence of COVID-19 at the metropolitan level, we aggregated data 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.
| Rank in MSA | County | Population | New daily cases per 100,000, week ending September 23 | New daily cases per 100,000, week ending September 16 | Cumulative cases per 100,000 | Cumulative deaths per 100,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pinellas County | 964,666 | 59.5 | 88.1 | 13,466.4 | 242.5 |
| 2 | Hillsborough County | 1,422,278 | 69.5 | 104.7 | 16,186.0 | 177.7 |
| 3 | Hernando County | 186,313 | 76.8 | 109.5 | 14,574.9 | 402.5 |
| 4 | Pasco County | 524,602 | 82.2 | 112.7 | 14,348.8 | 243.0 |
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