Special Report

COVID-19: This is the Least Dangerous County in the Lexington-Fayette, KY Metro Area

Samuel Stebbins

Published: May 9, 2021 5:00 am

Despite the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination efforts, the novel coronavirus continues to spread through the United States. To date, 32,167,970 Americans have been infected with the virus — and 572,987 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 Lexington-Fayette metropolitan area, located in Kentucky, a total of 51,582 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 10,178 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — in line with the national rate of 9,832 cases per 100,000 people.

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

The broader Lexington metro area comprises six counties or county equivalents — and of them, Clark County in Kentucky has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 2,846 infections in Clark County, or 7,934 for every 100,000 people.

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

There have been a total of 81 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Clark County, below the 90 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Lexington-Fayette metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of May 6, 2021.

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