Special Report

This is the County in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Metro Area With the Least COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: September 15, 2021 5:15 am

With the ongoing surge of the delta variant, COVID-19 continues to spread through the United States. To date, 40,508,857 Americans have been infected with the virus — and 651,204 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 Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro metropolitan area, which covers parts of Oregon and Washington, a total of 152,131 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 6,292 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — below the national rate of 12,382 cases per 100,000 people.

The lower than average per capita COVID-19 infection rate across Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro is being driven by one area in particular.

The broader Portland metro area comprises seven counties or county equivalents — and of them, Skamania County in Washington has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 543 infections in Skamania County, or 4,673 for every 100,000 people.

Not only does Skamania County have the lowest per capita infection rate in the Portland metro area, it also has a relatively low per capita fatality rate.

There have been a total of 26 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Skamania County, below the 68 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of Sept. 13, 2021.

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