After adding over 706,000 new cases throughout the last week, the U.S. now has more than 43.6 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. There have been more than 700,000 COVID-19-related deaths — the highest death toll of any country.

New cases continue to rise at a steady rate. In the past week, there were an average of 33.4 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 Americans — essentially unchanged from the week prior, when there were an average of 37.9 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 people.

While COVID-19 has spread to nearly every part of the country, cities continue to be the sites of major outbreaks. Experts agree that the virus is more likely to spread in group settings where large numbers of people routinely have close contact with one another, such as colleges, nursing homes, bars, and restaurants. Metropolitan areas with a high degree of connectivity between different neighborhoods and a large population may be particularly at-risk.

The Dayton-Kettering, OH, metro area consists of Montgomery County, Greene County, and Miami County. In the past week, there were an average of 51.8 new coronavirus cases every day per 100,000 Dayton residents, greater than the national figure. The metro area’s average daily case growth in the most recent week is a decrease from the week prior, when there were an average of 57.2 daily new cases per 100,000 Dayton residents.

The spread of coronavirus depends on a variety of factors and can vary even between neighboring counties. Within the Dayton-Kettering metro area, COVID-19 is growing the slowest in Greene County. There were an average of 45.7 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in Greene County during the past week, the least of the three counties in Dayton with available data.

Case growth in the Dayton metro area varies at the county level. In Miami County, for example, there were an average of 68.7 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in the past week — the most of any county in Dayton and more than the case growth rate in Greene County.

Just as Greene County has the slowest case growth in the Dayton area, it also has the lowest incidence of cases overall. As of October 7, there were a total of 12,799.2 confirmed cases per 100,000 residents in Greene County, the fewest of the three counties in the metro area. For comparison, the U.S. has so far reported 13,450.5 cases per 100,000 Americans nationwide.

In order to slow the spread of COVID-19, city and county governments have ordered the closure of thousands of consumer-facing businesses. These measures have led to widespread job loss and record unemployment. In Greene County, unemployment peaked at 12.8% in April 2020. As of June 2021, the county’s unemployment rate was 5.6%.

To determine the county in every metropolitan area where COVID-19 is growing the slowest, 24/7 Wall St. compiled and reviewed data from state and local health departments. We ranked counties according to the average number of new daily COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the seven days ending October 7. To estimate the incidence of COVID-19 at the metropolitan level, we aggregated data from the county level using boundary definitions from the U.S. Census Bureau. Population data used to adjust case and death totals came from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2019 American Community Survey and are five-year estimates. Unemployment data is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and is not seasonally adjusted.

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

Rank in MSA	County	Population	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending October 7	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending September 30	Cumulative cases per 100,000	Cumulative deaths per 100,000
1	Greene County	166,502	45.7	53.4	12,799.2	173.0
2	Montgomery County	531,670	50.3	56.7	13,256.0	224.2
3	Miami County	105,371	68.7	65.9	13,935.5	261.0

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.