Special Report

COVID-19: Sherman-Denison, TX Metro Area Among the Safest in America

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The U.S. reported over 463,000 new cases of coronavirus over the seven days ending May 10, bringing the total count to more than 81.0 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. There have been more than 990,000 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 19.2 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 Americans — essentially unchanged from the week prior, when there were an average of 15.6 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 people.

While new data shows that the risk of contracting COVID-19 is high in almost every part of the country, cities continue to be the sites of major outbreaks and superspreader events. 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 COVID-19 grew at an average rate of 22.2 new cases a day per 100,000 residents in the past week — 22.3% greater than the case growth in all counties outside of metro areas.

The Sherman-Denison, TX metro area consists of just Grayson County. As of May 10, there were 20,719.2 confirmed cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 Sherman residents, the 49th lowest rate of all 383 metro areas with available data. For comparison, the U.S. has so far reported 25,104.1 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 the Sherman-Denison metro area, unemployment peaked at 10.7% in April 2020. As of November 2021, the metro area’s unemployment rate was 4.2%.

To determine how the incidence of COVID-19 in the Sherman-Denison, TX metro area compares to the rest of the country, 24/7 Wall St. compiled and reviewed data from state and local health departments. We ranked metro areas based on the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents.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 seasonally adjusted.

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

FIPS MSA Population Confirmed COVID-19 cases as of May 10 Confirmed COVID-19 cases as of May 10 per 100,000 residents Cumulative COVID-19 deaths as of May 10 Cumulative COVID-19 deaths as of May 10 per 100,000 residents
13140 Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX 395,174 75,857 19,195.8 1,447 366.2
30980 Longview, TX 284,796 55,362 19,439.2 1,330 467.0
46340 Tyler, TX 227,449 45,545 20,024.3 967 425.2
47020 Victoria, TX 99,674 20,065 20,130.6 444 445.5
28660 Killeen-Temple, TX 444,716 90,365 20,319.7 1,201 270.1
43300 Sherman-Denison, TX 131,014 27,145 20,719.2 635 484.7
12420 Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX 2,114,441 457,718 21,647.2 3,581 169.4
45500 Texarkana, TX-AR 149,292 33,075 22,154.6 717 480.3
10180 Abilene, TX 170,669 39,090 22,904.0 889 520.9
26420 Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX 6,884,138 1,593,107 23,141.7 15,958 231.8
36220 Odessa, TX 160,579 37,524 23,367.9 703 437.8
47380 Waco, TX 268,361 63,984 23,842.5 967 360.3
19100 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX 7,320,663 1,759,324 24,032.3 18,748 256.1
32580 McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX 855,176 206,719 24,172.7 3,908 457.0
33260 Midland, TX 173,816 42,082 24,210.7 522 300.3
48660 Wichita Falls, TX 141,999 34,507 24,300.9 712 501.4
15180 Brownsville-Harlingen, TX 421,666 104,411 24,761.5 2,030 481.4
21340 El Paso, TX 836,062 208,323 24,917.2 3,734 446.6
11100 Amarillo, TX 263,776 65,730 24,918.9 1,280 485.3
18580 Corpus Christi, TX 428,548 111,015 25,904.9 1,835 428.2
17780 College Station-Bryan, TX 258,029 70,304 27,246.6 555 215.1
41700 San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX 2,468,193 683,249 27,682.2 7,858 318.4
31180 Lubbock, TX 316,474 97,165 30,702.4 1,409 445.2
41660 San Angelo, TX 117,986 41,068 34,807.5 553 468.7
29700 Laredo, TX 273,526 95,571 34,940.4 1,036 378.8

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