Special Report

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

Samuel Stebbins

Published: May 17, 2022 5:30 am

There have been 81,417,100 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States to date – and that number continues to grow.

In the Scranton–Wilkes-Barre–Hazleton metropolitan area, located in Pennsylvania, a total of 125,773 cases of COVID-19 have been reported. Adjusted for population, there have been 22,583 confirmed infections for every 100,000 people in the area — below the national rate of 24,885 cases per 100,000 people.

Even though Scranton–Wilkes-Barre–Hazleton has fewer COVID-19 infections per capita than the national average, there are parts of the metro area that appear to be at higher risk than others.

The broader Scranton metro area comprises three counties or county equivalents, which can include independent cities — and of them, Luzerne County has the most COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 75,379 confirmed infections in Luzerne County, or 23,713 for every 100,000 people.

Not only does Luzerne County have the most COVID-19 infections per capita in the Scranton area, it also has more deaths attributable to the virus per capita than the metro area as a whole. There have been a total of 430 coronavirus deaths for every 100,000 people in Luzerne County, compared to 404 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 13, 2022.

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