After adding over 425,000 new cases throughout the last week, the U.S. now has more than 80.7 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. There have been more than 980,000 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 16.7 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 Americans — essentially unchanged from the week prior, when there were an average of 13.4 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 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 19.0 new cases a day per 100,000 residents in the past week — 19.7% greater than the case growth in all counties outside of metro areas.

The Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA, metro area consists of Multnomah County, Washington County, Clark County, and four other counties. In the past week, there were an average of 28.7 new coronavirus cases every day per 100,000 Portland residents, greater than 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 was an average of 19.9 daily new cases per 100,000 Portland residents.

The spread of coronavirus depends on a variety of factors and can vary even between neighboring counties. Within the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro metro area, COVID-19 is growing the fastest in Multnomah County. There were an average of 38.4 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in Multnomah County during the past week, the most of the seven counties in Portland with available data.

Case growth in the Portland metro area varies widely at the county level. In Skamania County, for example, there were an average of 8.2 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in the past week — the least of any county in Portland and far more than the case growth rate in Multnomah County.

While Multnomah County is driving the growth of COVID-19 in the Portland area, it does not have the highest incidence of cases overall. As of May 5, there were a total of 14,938.7 confirmed cases per 100,000 residents in Multnomah County, the sixth most of the seven counties in the metro area. For comparison, the U.S. has so far reported 24,871.9 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. In Multnomah County, unemployment peaked at 15.9% in April 2020. As of June 2021, the county’s unemployment rate was 5.7%.

To determine the county in every metropolitan area where COVID-19 is growing the fastest, 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 May 5. To estimate the incidence of COVID-19 at the metropolitan level, we aggregated data up 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 Oregon 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 May 5	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending April 28	Cumulative cases per 100,000	Cumulative deaths per 100,000
1	Multnomah County	804,606	38.4	28.8	14,938.7	148.8
2	Washington County	589,481	27.6	20.0	15,016.9	99.9
3	Clackamas County	410,463	24.4	16.4	15,137.3	153.2
4	Columbia County	51,375	22.3	15.5	15,190.3	183.0
5	Clark County	473,252	22.0	11.4	19,067.9	168.4
6	Yamhill County	104,831	12.1	7.3	17,168.6	209.9
7	Skamania County	11,753	8.2	0.3	12,881.8	110.6

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