After adding over 5,310,000 new cases throughout the last week, the U.S. now has more than 67.4 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. There have been more than 840,000 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 221.3 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 Americans — an increase from the week prior, when there were an average of 213.6 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.

In the 50 largest metro areas, the incidence of coronavirus grew at an average rate of 242.0 new cases a day per 100,000 residents in the past week — 13.5% greater than the case growth in all counties outside of metro areas.

The Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA, metro area consists of King County, Pierce County, and Snohomish County. In the past week, there were an average of 220.5 new coronavirus cases every day per 100,000 Seattle residents, in line with the national figure. The metro area’s average daily case growth in the most recent week is an increase from the week prior, when there were an average of 182.1 daily new cases per 100,000 Seattle residents.

The spread of coronavirus depends on a variety of factors and can vary even between neighboring counties. Within the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro area, COVID-19 is growing the slowest in Snohomish County. There were an average of 208.7 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in Snohomish County during the past week, the least of the three counties in Seattle with available data.

Case growth in the Seattle metro area is relatively uniform at the county level. In King County, for example, there were an average of 226.1 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in the past week — the most of any county in Seattle yet relatively in line with the case growth rate in Snohomish County.

While Snohomish County has the slowest case growth in the Seattle area, it does not have the lowest incidence of cases overall. As of January 20, there were a total of 13,796.4 confirmed cases per 100,000 residents in Snohomish County, the second fewest of the three counties in the metro area. For comparison, the U.S. has so far reported 20,769.3 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 Snohomish County, unemployment peaked at 19.2% in April 2020. As of June 2021, the county’s unemployment rate was 6.1%.

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 January 20. 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 Washington 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 January 20	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending January 13	Cumulative cases per 100,000	Cumulative deaths per 100,000
1	Snohomish County	798,808	208.7	171.0	13,796.4	109.8
2	Pierce County	877,013	217.4	203.0	16,844.1	121.2
3	King County	2,195,502	226.1	177.8	13,054.7	100.3

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