After adding over 455,000 new cases throughout the last week, the U.S. now has more than 44.6 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 at a steady rate. In the past week, there were an average of 27.7 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 Americans — essentially unchanged from the week prior, when there were an average of 28.5 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 neighborhoods and a large population may be particularly at-risk.

The Columbia, SC, metro area consists of Richland County, Lexington County, Kershaw County, and three other counties. In the past week, there were an average of 25.7 new coronavirus cases every day per 100,000 Columbia residents, in line with 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 was an average of 32.5 daily new cases per 100,000 Columbia residents.

The spread of coronavirus depends on a variety of factors and can vary even between neighboring counties. Within the Columbia metro area, COVID-19 is growing the fastest in Kershaw County. There were an average of 33.8 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in Kershaw County during the past week, the most of the six counties in Columbia with available data.

Case growth in the Columbia metro area varies widely at the county level. In Calhoun County, for example, there were an average of 7.0 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in the past week — the least of any county in Columbia and far more than the case growth rate in Kershaw County.

While Kershaw County is driving the growth of COVID-19 in the Columbia area, it does not have the highest incidence of cases overall. As of October 20, there were a total of 18,124.2 confirmed cases per 100,000 residents in Kershaw County, the second most of the six counties in the metro area. For comparison, the U.S. has so far reported 13,751.2 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 Kershaw County, unemployment peaked at 9.6% in May 2020. As of June 2021, the county’s unemployment rate was 4.2%.

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 20. 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 South Carolina 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 20	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending October 13	Cumulative cases per 100,000	Cumulative deaths per 100,000
1	Kershaw County	65,112	33.8	50.4	18,124.2	302.6
2	Lexington County	290,278	28.6	35.1	18,474.7	238.0
3	Saluda County	20,303	26.4	22.5	12,352.9	266.0
4	Richland County	411,357	23.4	29.5	16,548.6	182.1
5	Fairfield County	22,565	15.9	24.2	14,358.5	412.1
6	Calhoun County	14,663	7.0	11.0	11,764.3	347.8

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