Special Report

These Are the Counties in the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC Metro Area With the Most COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: May 24, 2022 3:15 am

There have been 82,117,600 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States to date – and that number continues to grow.

In the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia metropolitan area, which covers parts of North Carolina and South Carolina, a total of 704,229 cases of COVID-19 have been reported. Adjusted for population, there have been 28,475 confirmed infections for every 100,000 people in the area — above the national rate of 25,100 cases per 100,000 people.

The higher than average per capita COVID-19 infection rate across Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia is being driven by a high concentration of the virus in one area in particular.

The broader Charlotte metro area comprises 10 counties or county equivalents, which can include independent cities — and of them, Chester County has the most COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 10,150 confirmed infections in Chester County, or 31,399 for every 100,000 people.

Not only does Chester County have the most COVID-19 infections per capita in the Charlotte 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 473 coronavirus deaths for every 100,000 people in Chester County, compared to 234 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of May 20, 2022.

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