Special Report

This is the County in the Wichita, KS Metro Area With the Least COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: September 15, 2021 4:45 am

With the ongoing surge of the delta variant, COVID-19 continues to spread through the United States. To date, 40,508,857 Americans have been infected with the virus — and 651,204 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 Wichita metropolitan area, located in Kansas, a total of 87,117 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 13,532 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — above the national rate of 12,382 cases per 100,000 people.

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

The broader Wichita metro area comprises five counties or county equivalents — and of them, Sumner County in Kansas has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 2,721 infections in Sumner County, or 11,724 for every 100,000 people.

Though Sumner County has the lowest per capita infection rate in the Wichita metro area, its per capita fatality rate is disproportionately high.

There have been a total of 237 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Sumner County, above the 173 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Wichita metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of Sept. 13, 2021.

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