Special Report

This is the County in the Knoxville, TN Metro Area With the Most COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: July 25, 2021 3:30 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 Knoxville metropolitan area, located in Tennessee, a total of 101,357 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 11,670 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 Knoxville is being driven by a high concentration of the virus in one area in particular.

The broader Knoxville metro area comprises nine counties or county equivalents, which can include independent cities — and of them, Blount County has the most COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 16,042 infections in Blount County, or 12,490 for every 100,000 people.

A relatively high infection rate does not necessarily mean COVID-19 related fatalities per capita are higher in Blount County than they are across all of the Knoxville area, however. There have been a total of 156 coronavirus deaths for every 100,000 people in Blount County, in line with 160 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Knoxville metro area.

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

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