This Is The County In The Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI Metro Area With The Least COVID-19

By Samuel Stebbins, 24/7 Wall St. - Chicago

2021-07-28

Despite the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination efforts, the novel coronavirus continues to spread through the United States. To date, 34,092,714 Americans have been infected with the virus — and 604,940 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 Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metropolitan area, which covers parts of Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin, a total of 1,019,026 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 10,686 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — in line with the national rate of 10,421 cases per 100,000 people.

Though per capita cases of COVID-19 are closely in line with the national per capita infection rate in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, there are still parts of the metro area where the per capita infection rate is relatively low.

The broader Chicago metro area comprises 14 counties or county equivalents — and of them, Newton County in Indiana has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 1,216 infections in Newton County, or 8,675 for every 100,000 people.

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

There have been a total of 257 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Newton County, above the 180 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of July 23, 2021.

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

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This story was originally published by 24/7 Wall St., a news organization that produces real-time business commentary and data-driven reporting for state and local markets across the country.