Special Report

COVID-19: This is the Least Dangerous County in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH Metro Area

Samuel Stebbins

Published: January 22, 2021 7:30 am

Despite the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination efforts, the novel coronavirus continues to spread through the United States. To date, 24,034,512 Americans have been infected with the virus — and 394,081 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 Boston-Cambridge-Newton metropolitan area, which covers parts of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, a total of 321,725 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 6,686 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — below the national rate of 7,346 cases per 100,000 people.

The lower than average per capita COVID-19 infection rate across Boston-Cambridge-Newton is being driven disproportionately by one area in particular.

The broader Boston metro area comprises seven counties or county equivalents — and of them, Strafford County has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 4,997 infections in Strafford County, or 3,897 for every 100,000 people.

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

There have been a total of 38 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Strafford County, below 189 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Boston-Cambridge-Newton metro area.

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

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