Special Report

This is the County in the Columbia, SC Metro Area With the Most COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: July 25, 2021 5:00 am

Though vaccine distribution is well underway across the United States, the novel coronavirus continues to spread through the population. To date, there have been 33,741,500 reported cases of the virus nationwide — and that number is growing every day.

In the Columbia metropolitan area, located in South Carolina, a total of 95,580 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 11,704 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — above the national rate of 10,313 cases per 100,000 people.

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

The broader Columbia metro area comprises six counties or county equivalents, which can include independent cities — and of them, Lexington County has the most COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 34,173 infections in Lexington County, or 11,935 for every 100,000 people.

A relatively high infection rate does not necessarily mean COVID-19 related fatalities per capita are higher in Lexington County than they are across all of the Columbia area, however. There have been a total of 168 coronavirus deaths for every 100,000 people in Lexington County, in line with 168 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Columbia metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of July 20, 2021.

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