Special Report

COVID-19: This is the Most Dangerous County in the Sioux City, IA-NE-SD Metro Area

Samuel Stebbins

Published: June 11, 2021 3:00 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 33,056,400 reported cases of the virus nationwide — and that number is growing every day.

In the Sioux City metropolitan area, which covers parts of Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota, a total of 25,090 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 14,875 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — above the national rate of 10,104 cases per 100,000 people.

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

The broader Sioux City metro area comprises five counties or county equivalents, which can include independent cities — and of them, Dakota County has the most COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 3,939 infections in Dakota County, or 19,388 for every 100,000 people.

Not only does Dakota County have the most COVID-19 infections per capita in the Sioux City area, it also has more deaths attributable to the virus per capita than the metro area as a whole. There have been a total of 320 coronavirus deaths for every 100,000 people in Dakota County, compared to 248 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Sioux City metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of June 9, 2021.

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