COVID-19: This is the Least Dangerous County in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA Metro Area

Despite the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination efforts, the novel coronavirus continues to spread through the United States. To date, 31,406,215 Americans have been infected with the virus — and 562,435 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 Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell metropolitan area, located in Georgia, a total of 582,369 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 10,077 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — in line with the national rate of 9,599 cases per 100,000 people.

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

The broader Atlanta metro area comprises 29 counties or county equivalents — and of them, Heard County has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 851 infections in Heard County, or 7,288 for every 100,000 people.

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

There have been a total of 163 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Heard County, above the 147 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of April 21, 2021.

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