After adding over 516,000 new cases throughout the last week, the U.S. now has more than 81.2 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. There have been more than 990,000 COVID-19-related deaths — the highest death toll of any country.

New cases continue to rise at a steady rate. In the past week, there were an average of 20.3 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 Americans — essentially unchanged from the week prior, when there were an average of 16.7 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 people.

While COVID-19 has spread to nearly every part of the country, cities continue to be the sites of major outbreaks. Experts agree that the virus is more likely to spread in group settings where large numbers of people routinely have close contact with one another, such as colleges, nursing homes, bars, and restaurants. Metropolitan areas with a high degree of connectivity between different neighborhoods and a large population may be particularly at-risk.

In the 50 largest metro areas, the incidence of coronavirus grew at an average rate of 23.5 new cases a day per 100,000 residents in the past week — 22.6% greater than the case growth in all counties outside of metro areas.

The New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA, metro area consists of Kings County, Queens County, New York County, and 20 other counties. In the past week, there were an average of 39.7 new coronavirus cases every day per 100,000 New York residents, greater than the national figure. The metro area’s average daily case growth in the most recent week is an increase from the week prior, when there were an average of 30.7 daily new cases per 100,000 New York residents.

The spread of coronavirus depends on a variety of factors and can vary even between neighboring counties. Within the New York-Newark-Jersey City metro area, COVID-19 is growing the slowest in Pike County, Pennsylvania. There were an average of 16.5 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in Pike County during the past week, the least of the 23 counties in New York with available data.

Case growth in the New York metro area varies widely at the county level. In Bergen County, for example, there were an average of 51.3 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in the past week — the most of any county in New York and far more than the case growth rate in Pike County.

Just as Pike County has the slowest case growth in the New York area, it also has the lowest incidence of cases overall. As of May 12, there were a total of 18,850.2 confirmed cases per 100,000 residents in Pike County, the fewest of the 23 counties in the metro area. For comparison, the U.S. has so far reported 25,031.2 cases per 100,000 Americans nationwide.

The pandemic has led to the closure of thousands of consumer-facing businesses around the country. These changes have led to widespread job loss and record unemployment. These changes have led to widespread job loss and record unemployment. In Pike County, unemployment peaked at 19.1% in April 2020. As of June 2021, the county’s unemployment rate was 7.2%.

To determine the county in every metropolitan area where COVID-19 is growing the slowest, 24/7 Wall St. compiled and reviewed data from state and local health departments. We ranked counties according to the average number of new daily COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the seven days ending May 12. To estimate the incidence of COVID-19 at the metropolitan level, we aggregated data from the county level using boundary definitions from the U.S. Census Bureau. Population data used to adjust case and death totals came from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2019 American Community Survey and are five-year estimates. Unemployment data is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and is not seasonally adjusted.

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

Rank in MSA	County	Population	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending May 12	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending May 5	Cumulative cases per 100,000	Cumulative deaths per 100,000
1	Pike County	55,453	16.5	22.3	18,850.2	173.1
2	Bronx County	1,435,068	21.3	16.7	29,001.6	539.5
3	Passaic County	503,637	31.4	25.6	29,568.5	463.8
4	Hudson County	670,046	32.4	28.6	26,546.7	406.4
5	Hunterdon County	124,823	33.4	27.8	20,635.6	220.3
6	Sussex County	141,483	33.7	28.1	24,895.6	335.7
7	Union County	554,033	34.4	27.7	27,078.2	424.7
8	Ocean County	596,415	35.9	25.5	28,052.9	498.0
9	Kings County	2,589,974	36.6	26.6	28,000.2	495.7
10	Rockland County	324,422	37.0	28.2	29,527.0	276.2
11	Essex County	795,404	38.1	32.5	27,788.8	454.0
12	Queens County	2,287,388	38.7	27.7	29,053.5	519.1
13	Monmouth County	621,659	40.4	31.6	27,508.5	350.4
14	Richmond County	474,893	40.8	33.5	36,154.5	490.6
15	Putnam County	98,787	40.8	31.4	25,049.9	126.5
16	Suffolk County	1,483,832	41.2	31.4	29,855.1	296.1
17	Middlesex County	825,920	41.9	36.2	24,539.8	348.3
18	Westchester County	968,890	41.9	33.9	27,170.7	280.5
19	Somerset County	329,838	43.9	34.5	21,721.3	295.6
20	Morris County	493,379	44.7	36.1	25,300.8	313.3
21	Nassau County	1,356,509	50.8	39.7	31,200.8	283.8
22	New York County	1,631,993	51.3	37.5	27,104.3	334.7
23	Bergen County	930,390	51.3	39.3	25,471.8	370.9

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