Special Report

COVID-19: This is the Least Dangerous County in the Abilene, TX Metro Area

Samuel Stebbins

Published: June 18, 2021 2:15 am

Despite the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination efforts, the novel coronavirus continues to spread through the United States. To date, 33,151,678 Americans have been infected with the virus — and 594,888 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 Abilene metropolitan area, located in Texas, a total of 19,692 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 11,583 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — above the national rate of 10,133 cases per 100,000 people.

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

The broader Abilene metro area comprises three counties or county equivalents — and of them, Callahan County in Texas has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 1,210 infections in Callahan County, or 8,787 for every 100,000 people.

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

There have been a total of 290 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Callahan County, compared to 299 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Abilene metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of June 16, 2021.

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