Special Report

COVID-19: This is the Least Dangerous County in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL Metro Area

Samuel Stebbins

Published: June 18, 2021 4:15 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 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metropolitan area, located in Florida, a total of 284,736 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 9,397 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — below the national rate of 10,133 cases per 100,000 people.

The lower than average per capita COVID-19 infection rate across Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater is being driven by one area in particular.

The broader Tampa metro area comprises four counties or county equivalents — and of them, Hernando County in Florida has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 14,792 infections in Hernando County, or 8,097 for every 100,000 people.

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

There have been a total of 264 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Hernando County, above the 158 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro area.

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

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