These Are the Counties in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI Metro Area With the Most COVID-19

Despite the ongoing vaccination effort, new daily cases of COVID-19 are on the rise once again in much of the United States. To date, there have been 50,102,100 reported cases of the virus nationwide — and that number is growing every day.

In the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metropolitan area, which covers parts of Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin, a total of 1,337,786 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 14,028 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — below the national rate of 15,314 cases per 100,000 people.

Even though Chicago-Naperville-Elgin has fewer COVID-19 infections per capita than the national average, there are parts of the metro area where this is not the case.

The broader Chicago metro area comprises 14 counties or county equivalents, which can include independent cities — and of them, Jasper County has the most COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 6,522 infections in Jasper County, or 19,498 for every 100,000 people.

Not only does Jasper County have the most COVID-19 infections per capita in the Chicago 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 287 coronavirus deaths for every 100,000 people in Jasper County, compared to 203 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of Dec. 17, 2021.

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