Special Report

These Are the Counties in the Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC Metro Area With the Least COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: December 1, 2021 4:00 am

Despite the ongoing vaccination effort, new daily cases of COVID-19 are beginning to rise once again in parts of the United States. To date, 47,702,004 Americans have been infected with the virus — and 770,162 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 Augusta-Richmond County metropolitan area, which covers parts of Georgia and South Carolina, a total of 101,040 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 17,002 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — above the national rate of 14,580 cases per 100,000 people.

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

The broader Augusta metro area comprises seven counties or county equivalents — and of them, Lincoln County in Georgia has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 1,205 infections in Lincoln County, or 15,451 for every 100,000 people.

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

There have been a total of 423 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Lincoln County, above the 277 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Augusta-Richmond County metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of Nov. 26, 2021.

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