Special Report

This is the County in the Champaign-Urbana, IL Metro Area With the Least COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: May 9, 2021 2:15 am

Despite the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination efforts, the novel coronavirus continues to spread through the United States. To date, 32,167,970 Americans have been infected with the virus — and 572,987 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 Champaign-Urbana metropolitan area, located in Illinois, a total of 23,585 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 9,857 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — in line with the national rate of 9,832 cases per 100,000 people.

Though per capita cases of COVID-19 are closely in line with the national per capita infection rate in Champaign-Urbana, there are still parts of the metro area where the per capita infection rate is relatively low.

The broader Champaign metro area comprises three counties or county equivalents — and of them, Piatt County in Illinois has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 1,458 infections in Piatt County, or 8,876 for every 100,000 people.

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

There have been a total of 85 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Piatt County, compared to 85 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Champaign-Urbana metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of May 6, 2021.

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