Special Report

COVID-19: This is the Least Dangerous County in the Knoxville, TN Metro Area

Samuel Stebbins

Published: June 18, 2021 5:30 am

Despite the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination efforts, the novel coronavirus continues to spread through the United States. To date, 33,151,678 Americans have been infected with the virus — and 594,888 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 Knoxville metropolitan area, located in Tennessee, a total of 100,625 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 11,586 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — above the national rate of 10,133 cases per 100,000 people.

Though per capita cases of COVID-19 are higher in Knoxville than they are nationwide, some parts of the metro area are safer than others.

The broader Knoxville metro area comprises nine counties or county equivalents — and of them, Union County in Tennessee has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 1,959 infections in Union County, or 10,154 for every 100,000 people.

Though Union County has the lowest per capita infection rate in the Knoxville metro area, its per capita fatality rate is disproportionately high.

There have been a total of 176 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Union County, above the 158 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Knoxville metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of June 16, 2021.

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