Special Report

COVID-19: This is the Most Dangerous County in the Wichita Falls, TX Metro Area

Samuel Stebbins

Published: May 11, 2021 4:45 am

Though vaccine distribution is well underway across the United States, the novel coronavirus continues to spread through the population. To date, there have been 32,210,800 reported cases of the virus nationwide — and that number is growing every day.

In the Wichita Falls metropolitan area, located in Texas, a total of 16,802 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 11,128 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — above the national rate of 9,845 cases per 100,000 people.

The higher than average per capita COVID-19 infection rate across Wichita Falls is being driven by a high concentration of the virus in one area in particular.

The broader Wichita Falls metro area comprises three counties or county equivalents, which can include independent cities — and of them, Wichita County has the most COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 14,971 infections in Wichita County, or 11,357 for every 100,000 people.

Not only does Wichita County have the most COVID-19 infections per capita in the Wichita Falls area, it also has more deaths attributable to the virus per capita than the metro area as a whole. There have been a total of 285 coronavirus deaths for every 100,000 people in Wichita County, compared to 268 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Wichita Falls metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of May 9, 2021.

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