Special Report

These Are the Counties in the Fort Smith, AR-OK Metro Area With the Most COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: December 7, 2021 3:45 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, there have been 48,413,300 reported cases of the virus nationwide — and that number is growing every day.

In the Fort Smith metropolitan area, which covers parts of Arkansas and Oklahoma, a total of 49,606 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 17,641 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — above the national rate of 14,798 cases per 100,000 people.

The higher than average per capita COVID-19 infection rate across Fort Smith is being driven by a high concentration of the virus in one area in particular.

The broader Fort Smith metro area comprises four counties or county equivalents, which can include independent cities — and of them, Sebastian County has the most COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 23,217 infections in Sebastian County, or 18,215 for every 100,000 people.

Not only does Sebastian County have the most COVID-19 infections per capita in the Fort Smith area, it also has more deaths attributable to the virus per capita than the metro area as a whole. There have been a total of 309 coronavirus deaths for every 100,000 people in Sebastian County, compared to 267 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Fort Smith metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of Dec. 3, 2021.

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