Special Report

This Is the County in the Grand Island, NE Metro Area With the Least COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: May 11, 2022 3:45 am

Since the first case of the omicron variant was detected in the U.S., new daily cases of COVID-19 have hit new highs. To date, 80,931,088 Americans are confirmed to have been infected with the virus — and over 980,000 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 Grand Island metropolitan area, located in Nebraska, a total of 21,740 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 25,658 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — in line with the national rate of 24,737 cases per 100,000 people.

Though per capita cases of COVID-19 are closely in line with the national per capita infection rate in Grand Island, there are still parts of the metro area where the per capita infection rate is relatively low.

The broader Grand Island metro area comprises four counties or county equivalents — and of them, Howard County in Nebraska has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 1,190 confirmed infections in Howard County, or 18,579 for every 100,000 people.

Though Howard County has the lowest per capita infection rate in the Grand Island metro area, its per capita fatality rate is closely in line with the regional average.

There have been a total of 234 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Howard County, compared to 231 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Grand Island metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of May 9, 2022.

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