Special Report

This Is the County in the St. Joseph, MO-KS Metro Area With the Least COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: May 25, 2022 4:15 am

To date, 82,217,041 Americans are confirmed to have been infected with COVID-19 — and over 1 million have died as a result. On a per capita basis, the U.S. has one of the highest known infections rates in the world.

In the St. Joseph metropolitan area, which covers parts of Missouri and Kansas, a total of 33,703 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 26,584 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — above the national rate of 25,130 cases per 100,000 people.

Though per capita cases of COVID-19 are higher in St. Joseph than they are nationwide, there are still parts of the metro area where the per capita infection rate is relatively low.

The broader St. Joseph metro area comprises four counties or county equivalents — and of them, DeKalb County in Missouri has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 2,222 confirmed infections in DeKalb County, or 17,685 for every 100,000 people.

Though DeKalb County has the lowest per capita infection rate in the St. Joseph metro area, its per capita fatality rate is closely in line with the regional average.

There have been a total of 374 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in DeKalb County, compared to 360 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire St. Joseph metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of May 23, 2022.

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