After adding over 515,000 new cases throughout the last week, the U.S. now has more than 46.3 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. There have been more than 740,000 COVID-19-related deaths — the highest death toll of any country.

New cases continue to rise at a faster rate. In the past week, there were an average of 25.6 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 Americans — an increase from the week prior, when there were an average of 19.6 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 Kansas City, MO-KS, metro area consists of Jackson County, Johnson County, Clay County, and 11 other counties. In the past week, there were an average of 19.9 new coronavirus cases every day per 100,000 Kansas City 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 were an average of 15.3 daily new cases per 100,000 Kansas City residents.

The spread of coronavirus depends on a variety of factors and can vary even between neighboring counties. Within the Kansas City metro area, COVID-19 is growing the slowest in Platte County. There were an average of 9.3 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in Platte County during the past week, the least of the 14 counties in Kansas City with available data.

Case growth in the Kansas City metro area varies at the county level. In Ray County, for example, there were an average of 25.3 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in the past week — the most of any county in Kansas City and more than the case growth rate in Platte County.

Just as Platte County has the slowest case growth in the Kansas City area, it also has the lowest incidence of cases overall. As of November 11, there were a total of 6,041.8 confirmed cases per 100,000 residents in Platte County, the fewest of the 14 counties in the metro area. For comparison, the U.S. has so far reported 14,268.3 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 Platte County, unemployment peaked at 10.2% in May 2020. As of June 2021, the county’s unemployment rate was 5.1%.

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 November 11. 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.

These are all the counties in Missouri 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 November 11	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending November 4	Cumulative cases per 100,000	Cumulative deaths per 100,000
1	Platte County	100,682	9.3	7.2	6,041.8	61.6
2	Clay County	242,516	10.2	8.5	6,287.0	92.4
3	Caldwell County	9,039	15.8	12.9	12,711.6	221.3
4	Wyandotte County	164,861	18.4	13.7	17,166.0	N/A
5	Cass County	103,597	19.3	16.0	14,076.7	164.1
6	Johnson County	591,506	20.0	15.0	13,380.3	N/A
7	Clinton County	20,500	20.2	11.4	14,146.3	375.6
8	Miami County	33,417	21.3	21.3	13,220.8	N/A
9	Linn County	9,671	22.4	19.0	16,709.8	N/A
10	Leavenworth County	80,745	23.5	15.9	13,077.0	N/A
11	Bates County	16,296	23.5	15.0	14,445.3	263.9
12	Lafayette County	32,597	24.0	23.0	14,584.2	227.0
13	Jackson County	696,216	24.3	18.3	17,404.8	223.9
14	Ray County	22,875	25.3	23.0	13,219.7	223.0

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