Despite the ongoing vaccination effort, new daily cases of COVID-19 are beginning to rise once again in parts of the United States. To date, there have been 48,413,300 reported cases of the virus nationwide — and that number is growing every day.
In the Des Moines-West Des Moines metropolitan area, located in Iowa, a total of 109,954 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 17,337 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — above the national rate of 14,798 cases per 100,000 people.
The higher than average per capita COVID-19 infection rate across Des Moines-West Des Moines is being driven by a high concentration of the virus in one area in particular.
The broader Des Moines metro area comprises five counties or county equivalents, which can include independent cities — and of them, Dallas County has the most COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 15,573 infections in Dallas County, or 18,539 for every 100,000 people.
A relatively high infection rate does not necessarily mean COVID-19 related fatalities per capita are higher in Dallas County than they are across all of the Des Moines area, however. There have been a total of 137 coronavirus deaths for every 100,000 people in Dallas County, compared to 173 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Des Moines-West Des Moines metro area.
All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of Dec. 3, 2021.
These are all the counties in Iowa where COVID-19 is slowing (and where it’s still getting worse).
| Rank | Geography | COVID cases per 100,000 people | Total cases | Deaths per 100,000 people | Total deaths |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dallas County, IA | 18,539 | 15,573 | 137 | 115 |
| 2 | Warren County, IA | 17,498 | 8,637 | 217 | 107 |
| 3 | Polk County, IA | 17,221 | 81,677 | 171 | 809 |
| 4 | Guthrie County, IA | 15,861 | 1,693 | 356 | 38 |
| 5 | Madison County, IA | 14,940 | 2,374 | 157 | 25 |
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