Special Report

This is the County in the Peoria, IL Metro Area With the Most COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: September 28, 2021 4:30 am

As the delta variant continues to surge, COVID-19 continues to spread through the population. To date, there have been 42,301,000 reported cases of the virus nationwide — and that number is growing every day.

In the Peoria metropolitan area, located in Illinois, a total of 53,365 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 14,252 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — above the national rate of 12,929 cases per 100,000 people.

The higher than average per capita COVID-19 infection rate across Peoria is being driven by a high concentration of the virus in one area in particular.

The broader Peoria metro area comprises five counties or county equivalents, which can include independent cities — and of them, Tazewell County has the most COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 19,736 infections in Tazewell County, or 14,745 for every 100,000 people.

Not only does Tazewell County have the most COVID-19 infections per capita in the Peoria 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 244 coronavirus deaths for every 100,000 people in Tazewell County, compared to 221 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Peoria metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of Sept. 24, 2021.

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