After adding over 654,000 new cases throughout the last week, the U.S. now has more than 47.4 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. There have been more than 760,000 COVID-19-related deaths — the highest death toll of any country.

New cases continue to rise, albeit at a slowing rate. In the past week, there were an average of 1.5 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 Americans — a decrease from the week prior, when there were an average of 12.9 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 people.

While COVID-19 has spread to nearly every part of the country, cities continue to be the sites of major outbreaks. Experts agree that the virus is more likely to spread in group settings where large numbers of people routinely have close contact with one another, such as colleges, nursing homes, bars, and restaurants. Metropolitan areas with a high degree of connectivity between neighborhoods and a large population may be particularly at-risk.

The Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI, metro area consists of Cook County, DuPage County, Lake County, and 11 other counties. In the past week, there were an average of 2.1 new coronavirus cases every day per 100,000 Chicago residents, in line with the national figure. The metro area’s average daily case growth in the most recent week is a decrease from the week prior, when there was an average of 11.1 daily new cases per 100,000 Chicago residents.

The spread of coronavirus depends on a variety of factors and can vary even between neighboring counties. Within the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metro area, COVID-19 is growing the fastest in Cook County. There were an average of 2.4 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in Cook County during the past week, the most of the 14 counties in Chicago with available data.

Case growth in the Chicago metro area varies at the county level. In Kendall County, for example, there were an average of 1.0 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in the past week — the least of any county in Chicago and more than the case growth rate in Cook County.

While Cook County is driving the growth of COVID-19 in the Chicago area, it does not have the highest incidence of cases overall. As of November 23, there were a total of 12,754.5 confirmed cases per 100,000 residents in Cook County, the ninth most of the 14 counties in the metro area. For comparison, the U.S. has so far reported 14,608.9 cases per 100,000 Americans nationwide.

In order to slow the spread of COVID-19, city and county governments have ordered the closure of thousands of consumer-facing businesses. These measures have led to widespread job loss and record unemployment. In Cook County, unemployment peaked at 18.1% in April 2020. As of June 2021, the county’s unemployment rate was 10.0%.

To determine the county in every metropolitan area where COVID-19 is growing the fastest, 24/7 Wall St. compiled and reviewed data from state and local health departments. We ranked counties according to the average number of new daily COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the seven days ending November 23. To estimate the incidence of COVID-19 at the metropolitan level, we aggregated data up from the county level using boundary definitions from the U.S. Census Bureau. Population data used to adjust case and death totals came from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2019 American Community Survey and are five-year estimates. Unemployment data is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and is not seasonally adjusted.

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

Rank in MSA	County	Population	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending November 23	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending November 16	Cumulative cases per 100,000	Cumulative deaths per 100,000
1	Cook County	5,198,275	2.4	9.7	12,754.5	219.9
2	Newton County	13,992	2.0	20.1	12,321.3	371.6
3	Kenosha County	168,524	2.0	18.4	15,114.8	236.8
4	Lake County	485,707	1.9	11.7	14,346.3	249.3
5	Kane County	531,376	1.9	10.0	13,485.9	168.6
6	Lake County	701,473	1.8	10.9	12,053.1	157.7
7	DuPage County	929,060	1.7	12.6	12,328.6	150.8
8	Will County	689,315	1.7	13.6	14,000.3	167.3
9	Porter County	168,636	1.3	13.8	14,419.8	221.8
10	Grundy County	50,666	1.3	19.7	15,541.0	177.6
11	Jasper County	33,447	1.3	23.3	17,409.6	263.1
12	McHenry County	307,714	1.1	15.4	12,189.2	110.5
13	DeKalb County	104,366	1.1	16.1	12,428.4	131.3
14	Kendall County	126,054	1.0	14.6	13,688.6	93.6

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