Special Report

This Is the County in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA Metro Area With the Least COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: May 25, 2022 5:45 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 Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell metropolitan area, located in Georgia, a total of 1,347,620 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 23,317 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — below the national rate of 25,130 cases per 100,000 people.

The lower than average per capita COVID-19 infection rate across Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell is being driven by one area in particular.

The broader Atlanta metro area comprises 29 counties or county equivalents — and of them, Heard County in Georgia has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 2,175 confirmed infections in Heard County, or 18,626 for every 100,000 people.

Though Heard County has the lowest per capita infection rate in the Atlanta metro area, its per capita fatality rate is disproportionately high.

There have been a total of 462 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Heard County, above the 279 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell metro area.

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

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