Special Report

This Is the County in the Scranton--Wilkes-Barre--Hazleton, PA Metro Area With the Least COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: May 11, 2022 3:00 am

Since the first case of the omicron variant was detected in the U.S., new daily cases of COVID-19 have hit new highs. To date, 80,931,088 Americans are confirmed to have been infected with the virus — and over 980,000 have died as a result. On a per capita basis, the U.S. has one of the highest known infections rates in the world.

In the Scranton–Wilkes-Barre–Hazleton metropolitan area, located in Pennsylvania, a total of 124,322 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 22,323 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — below the national rate of 24,737 cases per 100,000 people.

The lower than average per capita COVID-19 infection rate across Scranton–Wilkes-Barre–Hazleton is being driven by one area in particular.

The broader Scranton metro area comprises three counties or county equivalents — and of them, Wyoming County in Pennsylvania has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 5,208 confirmed infections in Wyoming County, or 18,878 for every 100,000 people.

Though Wyoming County has the lowest per capita infection rate in the Scranton metro area, its per capita fatality rate is closely in line with the regional average.

There have been a total of 384 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Wyoming County, compared to 402 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Scranton–Wilkes-Barre–Hazleton metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of May 9, 2022.

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