Special Report

COVID-19: This is the Least Dangerous County in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH Metro Area

Samuel Stebbins

Published: June 18, 2021 5:00 am

Despite the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination efforts, the novel coronavirus continues to spread through the United States. To date, 33,151,678 Americans have been infected with the virus — and 594,888 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 Boston-Cambridge-Newton metropolitan area, which covers parts of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, a total of 464,491 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 9,653 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — in line with the national rate of 10,133 cases per 100,000 people.

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

The broader Boston metro area comprises seven counties or county equivalents — and of them, Strafford County in New Hampshire has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 9,990 infections in Strafford County, or 7,790 for every 100,000 people.

Not only does Strafford County have the lowest per capita infection rate in the Boston metro area, it also has a relatively low per capita fatality rate.

There have been a total of 74 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Strafford County, below the 241 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Boston-Cambridge-Newton metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of June 16, 2021.

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