After adding over 637,000 new cases throughout the last week, the U.S. now has more than 44.3 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. There have been more than 710,000 COVID-19-related deaths — the highest death toll of any country.

New cases continue to rise, albeit at a slowing rate. In the past week, there were an average of 28.1 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 Americans — a decrease from the week prior, when there were an average of 33.4 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 New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA, metro area consists of Kings County, Queens County, New York County, and 20 other counties. In the past week, there were an average of 17.0 new coronavirus cases every day per 100,000 New York 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 18.8 daily new cases per 100,000 New York residents.

The spread of coronavirus depends on a variety of factors and can vary even between neighboring counties. Within the New York-Newark-Jersey City metro area, COVID-19 is growing the fastest in Ocean County, New Jersey. There were an average of 32.9 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in Ocean County during the past week, the most of the 23 counties in New York with available data.

Case growth in the New York metro area varies widely at the county level. In Hudson County, for example, there were an average of 9.3 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in the past week — the least of any county in New York and far more than the case growth rate in Ocean County.

While Ocean County is driving the growth of COVID-19 in the New York area, it does not have the highest incidence of cases overall. As of October 14, there were a total of 15,484.5 confirmed cases per 100,000 residents in Ocean County, the sixth most of the 23 counties in the metro area. For comparison, the U.S. has so far reported 13,646.9 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 Ocean County, unemployment peaked at 17.3% in April 2020. As of June 2021, the county’s unemployment rate was 7.2%.

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 October 14. 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 New York 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 October 14	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending October 7	Cumulative cases per 100,000	Cumulative deaths per 100,000
1	Ocean County	596,415	32.9	35.3	15,484.5	387.1
2	Pike County	55,453	31.6	35.6	9,233.0	106.4
3	Sussex County	141,483	28.7	29.7	11,781.6	229.7
4	Suffolk County	1,483,832	25.4	30.6	15,921.5	240.7
5	Rockland County	324,422	23.6	23.5	16,172.1	239.5
6	Richmond County	474,893	22.4	24.0	18,522.9	405.4
7	Kings County	2,589,974	21.9	20.2	12,727.8	417.8
8	Putnam County	98,787	20.4	21.5	12,440.9	97.2
9	Monmouth County	621,659	20.4	24.2	14,541.3	276.4
10	Nassau County	1,356,509	17.7	21.4	15,650.2	241.9
11	Hunterdon County	124,823	16.4	16.8	9,352.4	152.2
12	Queens County	2,287,388	15.3	15.7	13,678.3	448.4
13	Bronx County	1,435,068	15.0	15.2	14,372.7	469.7
14	Morris County	493,379	14.7	15.4	11,554.0	262.3
15	Passaic County	503,637	14.1	15.8	16,014.3	396.9
16	Bergen County	930,390	13.8	17.7	12,688.2	319.4
17	Middlesex County	825,920	13.1	15.2	12,674.4	295.5
18	New York County	1,631,993	12.6	15.9	10,196.9	283.5
19	Somerset County	329,838	11.8	14.9	10,433.0	264.7
20	Union County	554,033	11.2	14.3	14,310.2	366.9
21	Essex County	795,404	11.1	13.6	13,247.0	394.1
22	Westchester County	968,890	9.6	11.4	14,751.5	241.3
23	Hudson County	670,046	9.3	11.2	14,397.5	355.2

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