Special Report

These Are the Counties in the Kingsport-Bristol-Bristol, TN-VA Metro Area With the Most COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: May 24, 2022 3:30 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 Kingsport-Bristol-Bristol metropolitan area, which covers parts of Tennessee and Virginia, a total of 87,253 cases of COVID-19 have been reported. Adjusted for population, there have been 28,477 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 Kingsport-Bristol-Bristol is being driven by a high concentration of the virus in one area in particular.

The broader Kingsport metro area comprises five counties or county equivalents, which can include independent cities — and of them, Hawkins County has the most COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 16,728 confirmed infections in Hawkins County, or 29,659 for every 100,000 people.

Not only does Hawkins County have the most COVID-19 infections per capita in the Kingsport 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 571 coronavirus deaths for every 100,000 people in Hawkins County, compared to 473 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Kingsport-Bristol-Bristol metro area.

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

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