Special Report

This Is the County in the Providence-Warwick, RI-MA Metro Area With the Least COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: October 27, 2021 5:00 am

Following a months long surge driven by the delta variant, new daily cases of COVID-19 are falling once again in the United States. To date, 45,027,013 Americans have been infected with the virus — and 728,404 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 Providence-Warwick metropolitan area, which covers parts of Rhode Island and Massachusetts, a total of 245,353 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 15,187 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — above the national rate of 13,763 cases per 100,000 people.

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

The broader Providence metro area comprises six counties or county equivalents — and of them, Newport County in Rhode Island has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 8,693 infections in Newport County, or 10,464 for every 100,000 people.

Not only does Newport County have the lowest per capita infection rate in the Providence metro area, it also has a relatively low per capita fatality rate.

There have been a total of 61 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Newport County, below the 292 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Providence-Warwick metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of Oct. 25, 2021.

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