Special Report

This Is the County in the Tuscaloosa, AL Metro Area With the Least COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: October 13, 2021 3:15 am

Following a months long surge driven by the delta variant, new daily cases of COVID-19 are falling once again in the United States. To date, 43,792,254 Americans have been infected with the virus — and 703,599 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 Tuscaloosa metropolitan area, located in Alabama, a total of 40,613 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 16,824 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — above the national rate of 13,385 cases per 100,000 people.

Though per capita cases of COVID-19 are higher in Tuscaloosa than they are nationwide, some parts of the metro area are safer than others.

The broader Tuscaloosa metro area comprises three counties or county equivalents — and of them, Pickens County in Alabama has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 3,114 infections in Pickens County, or 15,341 for every 100,000 people.

Though Pickens County has the lowest per capita infection rate in the Tuscaloosa metro area, its per capita fatality rate is disproportionately high.

There have been a total of 379 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Pickens County, above the 304 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Tuscaloosa metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of Oct. 8, 2021.

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