Special Report

These Are the Counties in the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA Metro Area With the Least COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: September 26, 2021 4:30 am

With the ongoing surge of the delta variant, COVID-19 continues to spread through the United States. To date, 42,163,561 Americans have been infected with the virus — and 673,728 have died as a result. On a per capita basis, the U.S. has one of the highest known infections rates in the world.

In the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward metropolitan area, located in California, a total of 333,709 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 7,141 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — below the national rate of 12,887 cases per 100,000 people.

The lower than average per capita COVID-19 infection rate across San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward is being driven by one area in particular.

The broader San Francisco metro area comprises five counties or county equivalents — and of them, San Francisco County in California has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 52,008 infections in San Francisco County, or 5,978 for every 100,000 people.

Not only does San Francisco County have the lowest per capita infection rate in the San Francisco metro area, it also has a relatively low per capita fatality rate.

There have been a total of 70 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in San Francisco County, below the 79 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of Sept. 23, 2021.

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