After adding over 561,000 new cases throughout the last week, the U.S. now has more than 77.9 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. There have been more than 930,000 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 31.4 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 Americans — a decrease from the week prior, when there were an average of 60.3 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 different 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 19.5 new coronavirus cases every day per 100,000 Chicago residents, less than 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 were an average of 35.3 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 slowest in Lake County, Indiana. There were an average of 10.6 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in Lake County during the past week, the least of the 14 counties in Chicago with available data.

Case growth in the Chicago metro area varies widely at the county level. In Kendall County, for example, there were an average of 41.7 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in the past week — the most of any county in Chicago and far more than the case growth rate in Lake County.

While Lake County has the slowest case growth in the Chicago area, it does not have the lowest incidence of cases overall. As of February 24, there were a total of 21,662.0 confirmed cases per 100,000 residents in Lake County, the fourth fewest of the 14 counties in the metro area. For comparison, the U.S. has so far reported 24,014.4 cases per 100,000 Americans nationwide.

The pandemic has led to the closure of thousands of consumer-facing businesses around the country. These changes have led to widespread job loss and record unemployment. These changes have led to widespread job loss and record unemployment. In Lake County, unemployment peaked at 20.3% in April 2020. As of June 2021, the county’s unemployment rate was 7.9%.

To determine the county in every metropolitan area where COVID-19 is growing the slowest, 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 February 24. To estimate the incidence of COVID-19 at the metropolitan level, we aggregated data 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 February 24	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending February 17	Cumulative cases per 100,000	Cumulative deaths per 100,000
1	Lake County	485,707	10.6	16.6	21,662.0	345.7
2	Newton County	13,992	12.8	20.0	18,067.5	471.7
3	Cook County	5,198,275	16.4	28.4	21,301.1	268.1
4	Grundy County	50,666	17.1	30.2	24,580.6	262.5
5	Kenosha County	168,524	18.5	34.3	25,820.1	359.0
6	Will County	689,315	18.6	31.1	23,114.0	213.8
7	Jasper County	33,447	19.7	28.9	26,707.9	406.6
8	Kane County	531,376	24.0	54.8	23,341.1	204.9
9	DuPage County	929,060	25.3	42.8	22,024.8	179.0
10	Lake County	701,473	26.7	47.8	20,870.7	186.2
11	Porter County	168,636	28.4	37.8	21,950.8	306.6
12	DeKalb County	104,366	29.9	59.2	21,934.3	180.1
13	McHenry County	307,714	30.7	92.1	24,202.7	147.9
14	Kendall County	126,054	41.7	55.1	24,106.3	121.4

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