Special Report

These Are the Counties in the Grand Rapids-Wyoming, MI Metro Area With the Most COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: May 24, 2022 5:15 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 Grand Rapids-Wyoming metropolitan area, located in Michigan, a total of 278,534 cases of COVID-19 have been reported. Adjusted for population, there have been 26,516 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 Grand Rapids-Wyoming is being driven by a high concentration of the virus in one area in particular.

The broader Grand Rapids metro area comprises four counties or county equivalents, which can include independent cities — and of them, Ottawa County has the most COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 76,822 confirmed infections in Ottawa County, or 27,047 for every 100,000 people.

Not only does Ottawa County have the most COVID-19 infections per capita in the Grand Rapids 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 277 coronavirus deaths for every 100,000 people in Ottawa County, compared to 258 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Grand Rapids-Wyoming metro area.

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

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