After adding over 208,000 new cases throughout the last week, the U.S. now has more than 79.5 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. There have been more than 970,000 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 9.0 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 Americans — essentially unchanged from the week prior, when there were an average of 9.1 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 10.2 new cases a day per 100,000 residents in the past week — 17.4% greater than the case growth in all counties outside of metro areas.

The Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO, metro area consists of Denver County, Arapahoe County, Jefferson County, and seven other counties. In the past week, there were an average of 13.8 new coronavirus cases every day per 100,000 Denver residents, in line with the national figure. The metro area’s average daily case growth in the most recent week is a decrease from the week prior, when there were an average of 19.6 daily new cases per 100,000 Denver residents.

The spread of coronavirus depends on a variety of factors and can vary even between neighboring counties. Within the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood metro area, COVID-19 is growing the slowest in Gilpin County. There were an average of 7.1 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in Gilpin County during the past week, the least of the 10 counties in Denver with available data.

Case growth in the Denver metro area varies at the county level. In Clear Creek County, for example, there were an average of 18.9 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in the past week — the most of any county in Denver and more than the case growth rate in Gilpin County.

Just as Gilpin County has the slowest case growth in the Denver area, it also has the lowest incidence of cases overall. As of April 7, there were a total of 15,619.8 confirmed cases per 100,000 residents in Gilpin County, the fewest of the 10 counties in the metro area. For comparison, the U.S. has so far reported 24,484.6 cases per 100,000 Americans nationwide.

The pandemic has led to the closure of thousands of consumer-facing businesses around the country. These changes have led to widespread job loss and record unemployment. These changes have led to widespread job loss and record unemployment. In Gilpin County, unemployment peaked at 23.3% in April 2020. As of June 2021, the county’s unemployment rate was 7.2%.

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 April 7. 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 Colorado 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 April 7	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending March 31	Cumulative cases per 100,000	Cumulative deaths per 100,000
1	Gilpin County	6,018	7.1	13.2	15,619.8	66.5
2	Elbert County	25,717	8.3	13.6	18,388.6	143.9
3	Park County	17,867	10.9	12.0	15,649.0	111.9
4	Arapahoe County	644,560	12.3	17.7	23,190.5	176.9
5	Adams County	504,108	12.8	17.3	25,969.2	248.0
6	Broomfield County	67,886	13.4	19.0	19,457.6	165.0
7	Jefferson County	574,798	14.7	23.6	21,084.8	229.8
8	Douglas County	336,041	14.8	21.6	22,899.6	119.3
9	Denver County	705,576	15.0	19.5	23,804.2	182.1
10	Clear Creek County	9,495	18.9	13.5	16,145.3	126.4

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