After adding over 516,000 new cases throughout the last week, the U.S. now has more than 81.2 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 20.3 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 Americans — essentially unchanged from the week prior, when there were an average of 16.7 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 23.5 new cases a day per 100,000 residents in the past week — 22.6% greater than the case growth in all counties outside of metro areas.

The Grand Island, NE, metro area consists of Hall County, Merrick County, and Howard County. In the past week, there were an average of 1.4 new coronavirus cases every day per 100,000 Grand Island residents, less than the national figure. The metro area’s average daily case growth in the most recent week is essentially unchanged from the week prior, when there was an average of 4.4 daily new cases per 100,000 Grand Island residents.

The spread of coronavirus depends on a variety of factors and can vary even between neighboring counties. Within the Grand Island metro area, COVID-19 is growing the fastest in Merrick County. There were an average of 8.1 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in Merrick County during the past week, the most of the three counties in Grand Island with available data.

Case growth in the Grand Island metro area varies at the county level. In Howard County, for example, there were an average of 0.0 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in the past week — the least of any county in Grand Island and more than the case growth rate in Merrick County.

While Merrick County is driving the growth of COVID-19 in the Grand Island area, it does not have the highest incidence of cases overall. As of May 12, there were a total of 22,005.6 confirmed cases per 100,000 residents in Merrick County, the second most of the three counties in the metro area. For comparison, the U.S. has so far reported 25,031.2 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 Merrick County, unemployment peaked at 8.8% in April 2020. As of June 2021, the county’s unemployment rate was 2.5%.

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 12. 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 Nebraska 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 12	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending May 5	Cumulative cases per 100,000	Cumulative deaths per 100,000
1	Merrick County	7,798	8.1	4.4	22,005.6	218.0
2	Hall County	61,265	1.7	4.8	26,318.5	228.5
3	Howard County	6,417	0.0	1.3	18,357.5	233.8

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