Special Report

These Are the Counties in the Birmingham-Hoover, AL Metro Area With the Least COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: May 18, 2022 5:00 am

Since the first case of the omicron variant was detected in the U.S., new daily cases of COVID-19 have hit new highs. To date, 81,519,474 Americans are confirmed to have been infected with the virus — and over 1 million 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 Birmingham-Hoover metropolitan area, located in Alabama, a total of 323,827 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 28,231 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — above the national rate of 24,917 cases per 100,000 people.

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

The broader Birmingham metro area comprises seven counties or county equivalents — and of them, Chilton County in Alabama has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 11,128 confirmed infections in Chilton County, or 25,331 for every 100,000 people.

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

There have been a total of 471 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Chilton County, above the 370 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Birmingham-Hoover metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of May 16, 2022.

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