After adding over 682,000 new cases throughout the last week, the U.S. now has more than 48.2 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. There have been more than 770,000 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 0.8 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 Americans — essentially unchanged from the week prior, when there were an average of 1.7 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 Pittsburgh, PA, metro area consists of Allegheny County, Westmoreland County, Washington County, and four other counties. In the past week, there were an average of 1.7 new coronavirus cases every day per 100,000 Pittsburgh residents, in line with 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 1.4 daily new cases per 100,000 Pittsburgh residents.

The spread of coronavirus depends on a variety of factors and can vary even between neighboring counties. Within the Pittsburgh metro area, COVID-19 is growing the slowest in Washington County. There were an average of 1.3 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in Washington County during the past week, the least of the seven counties in Pittsburgh with available data.

Case growth in the Pittsburgh metro area varies at the county level. In Butler County, for example, there were an average of 2.4 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in the past week — the most of any county in Pittsburgh and more than the case growth rate in Washington County.

While Washington County has the slowest case growth in the Pittsburgh area, it does not have the lowest incidence of cases overall. As of December 2, there were a total of 14,465.4 confirmed cases per 100,000 residents in Washington County, the second fewest of the seven counties in the metro area. For comparison, the U.S. has so far reported 14,869.9 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 Washington County, unemployment peaked at 16.9% in April 2020. As of June 2021, the county’s unemployment rate was 6.5%.

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 December 2. 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 Pennsylvania 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 December 2	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending November 25	Cumulative cases per 100,000	Cumulative deaths per 100,000
1	Washington County	207,212	1.3	1.0	14,465.4	208.5
2	Allegheny County	1,221,744	1.4	1.2	12,292.2	203.8
3	Fayette County	131,302	1.7	0.7	15,647.9	350.3
4	Beaver County	165,833	1.9	2.4	15,594.0	314.2
5	Armstrong County	65,867	2.1	1.9	15,797.0	346.2
6	Westmoreland County	352,590	2.1	2.1	14,664.6	277.9
7	Butler County	186,899	2.4	1.7	15,473.6	293.2

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.