Special Report

This Is the County in the Knoxville, TN Metro Area With the Least COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: May 11, 2022 5:15 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 Knoxville metropolitan area, located in Tennessee, a total of 250,554 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 28,849 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — above the national rate of 24,737 cases per 100,000 people.

Though per capita cases of COVID-19 are higher in Knoxville than they are nationwide, some parts of the metro area are safer than others.

The broader Knoxville metro area comprises nine counties or county equivalents — and of them, Union County in Tennessee has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 5,405 confirmed infections in Union County, or 28,015 for every 100,000 people.

Though Union County has the lowest per capita infection rate in the Knoxville metro area, its per capita fatality rate is disproportionately high.

There have been a total of 389 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Union County, above the 347 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Knoxville metro area.

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

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