Special Report

These Are the Counties in the Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford, VA Metro Area With the Least COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: December 1, 2021 3:15 am

Despite the ongoing vaccination effort, new daily cases of COVID-19 are beginning to rise once again in parts of the United States. To date, 47,702,004 Americans have been infected with the virus — and 770,162 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 Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford metropolitan area, located in Virginia, a total of 23,359 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 12,811 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — below the national rate of 14,580 cases per 100,000 people.

The lower than average per capita COVID-19 infection rate across Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford is being driven by one area in particular.

The broader Blacksburg metro area comprises five counties or county equivalents — and of them, Floyd County in Virginia has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 1,529 infections in Floyd County, or 9,760 for every 100,000 people.

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

There have been a total of 198 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Floyd County, above the 167 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of Nov. 26, 2021.

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