After adding over 429,000 new cases throughout the last week, the U.S. now has more than 82.9 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. There have been more than 990,000 COVID-19-related deaths — the highest death toll of any country.

New cases continue to rise at a steady rate. In the past week, there were an average of 28.4 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 Americans — essentially unchanged from the week prior, when there were an average of 31.1 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 people.

While COVID-19 has spread to nearly every part of the country, cities continue to be the sites of major outbreaks. Experts agree that the virus is more likely to spread in group settings where large numbers of people routinely have close contact with one another, such as colleges, nursing homes, bars, and restaurants. Metropolitan areas with a high degree of connectivity between different neighborhoods and a large population may be particularly at-risk.

In the 50 largest metro areas, the incidence of coronavirus grew at an average rate of 35.0 new cases a day per 100,000 residents in the past week — 30.0% greater than the case growth in all counties outside of metro areas.

The Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV, metro area consists of Fairfax County, Montgomery County, Prince George’s County, and 22 other counties. In the past week, there were an average of 42.7 new coronavirus cases every day per 100,000 Washington residents, greater than the national figure. The metro area’s average daily case growth in the most recent week is essentially unchanged from the week prior, when there were an average of 44.6 daily new cases per 100,000 Washington residents.

The spread of coronavirus depends on a variety of factors and can vary even between neighboring counties. Within the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metro area, COVID-19 is growing the slowest in Madison County, Virginia. There were an average of 15.2 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in Madison County during the past week, the least of the 25 counties in Washington with available data.

Case growth in the Washington metro area varies widely at the county level. In Falls Church city, for example, there were an average of 75.5 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in the past week — the most of any county in Washington and far more than the case growth rate in Madison County.

While Madison County has the slowest case growth in the Washington area, it does not have the lowest incidence of cases overall. As of June 1, there were a total of 18,845.9 confirmed cases per 100,000 residents in Madison County, the eighth fewest of the 25 counties in the metro area. For comparison, the U.S. has so far reported 25,552.7 cases per 100,000 Americans nationwide.

The pandemic has led to the closure of thousands of consumer-facing businesses around the country. These changes have led to widespread job loss and record unemployment. These changes have led to widespread job loss and record unemployment. In Madison County, unemployment peaked at 7.1% in April 2020. As of June 2021, the county’s unemployment rate was 2.9%.

To determine the county in every metropolitan area where COVID-19 is growing the slowest, 24/7 Wall St. compiled and reviewed data from state and local health departments. We ranked counties according to the average number of new daily COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the seven days ending June 1. To estimate the incidence of COVID-19 at the metropolitan level, we aggregated data from the county level using boundary definitions from the U.S. Census Bureau. Population data used to adjust case and death totals came from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2019 American Community Survey and are five-year estimates. Unemployment data is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and is not seasonally adjusted.

Click here to see all current COVID-19 data for Washington D.C.

Rank in MSA	County	Population	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending June 1	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending May 25	Cumulative cases per 100,000	Cumulative deaths per 100,000
1	Madison County	13,170	15.2	23.2	18,845.9	318.9
2	Fairfax city	23,531	18.2	14.3	8,966.9	182.7
3	Culpeper County	51,101	18.9	18.2	22,754.9	293.5
4	Fauquier County	69,728	19.0	24.2	19,316.5	208.0
5	Clarke County	14,423	20.8	25.8	18,886.5	298.1
6	Rappahannock County	7,378	22.7	12.7	14,502.6	135.5
7	Calvert County	91,511	23.1	21.2	12,821.4	160.6
8	Manassas Park city	16,986	26.1	27.3	22,907.1	159.0
9	Warren County	39,492	28.4	24.0	22,333.6	397.5
10	Fredericksburg city	28,622	30.4	41.1	19,673.7	146.7
11	Prince George’s County	908,670	30.9	30.5	19,722.1	238.7
12	Spotsylvania County	132,833	32.7	30.9	21,270.3	228.1
13	Frederick County	251,422	33.0	31.0	19,091.8	208.8
14	Manassas city	41,174	34.4	29.8	23,002.4	172.4
15	Charles County	159,428	35.7	40.0	18,674.3	222.0
16	Prince William County	461,423	37.3	37.8	21,749.2	162.1
17	Jefferson County	56,506	38.4	33.2	26,188.4	235.4
18	Stafford County	146,773	42.6	42.9	21,901.2	121.3
19	District of Columbia	692,683	42.8	50.4	21,549.7	193.7
20	Fairfax County	1,145,862	44.3	47.0	17,051.4	127.2
21	Loudoun County	395,134	50.5	49.7	18,896.9	97.2
22	Montgomery County	1,043,530	52.1	53.6	17,775.9	196.8
23	Alexandria city	157,613	63.8	70.1	21,637.8	119.9
24	Arlington County	233,464	74.1	79.5	20,840.0	138.4
25	Falls Church city	14,128	75.5	73.5	16,718.6	120.3

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