After adding over 934,000 new cases throughout the last week, the U.S. now has more than 42.1 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. There have been more than 670,000 COVID-19-related deaths — the highest death toll of any country.

New cases continue to rise at a steady rate. In the past week, there were an average of 45.1 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 Americans — essentially unchanged from the week prior, when there were an average of 49.5 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 Kansas City, MO-KS, metro area consists of Jackson County, Johnson County, Clay County, and 11 other counties. In the past week, there were an average of 37.1 new coronavirus cases every day per 100,000 Kansas City residents, less than the national figure. The metro area’s average daily case growth in the most recent week is essentially unchanged from the week prior, when there was an average of 39.3 daily new cases per 100,000 Kansas City residents.

The spread of coronavirus depends on a variety of factors and can vary even between neighboring counties. Within the Kansas City metro area, COVID-19 is growing the fastest in Linn County, Kansas. There were an average of 95.2 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in Linn County during the past week, the most of the 14 counties in Kansas City with available data.

Case growth in the Kansas City metro area varies widely at the county level. In Platte County, for example, there were an average of 11.4 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in the past week — the least of any county in Kansas City and far more than the case growth rate in Linn County.

While Linn County is driving the growth of COVID-19 in the Kansas City area, it does not have the highest incidence of cases overall. As of September 23, there were a total of 13,835.2 confirmed cases per 100,000 residents in Linn County, the third most of the 14 counties in the metro area. For comparison, the U.S. has so far reported 12,985.5 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 Linn County, unemployment peaked at 10.2% in April 2020. As of June 2021, the county’s unemployment rate was 5.3%.

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 September 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 Missouri 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 September. 23	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending September. 16	Cumulative cases per 100,000	Cumulative deaths per 100,000
1	Linn County	9,671	95.2	126.6	13,835.2	N/A
2	Miami County	33,417	69.6	100.3	11,760.5	N/A
3	Ray County	22,875	55.0	53.6	12,170.5	196.7
4	Bates County	16,296	50.5	70.1	12,819.1	233.2
5	Jackson County	696,216	43.7	45.4	16,252.9	200.2
6	Clinton County	20,500	43.5	57.2	13,102.4	365.9
7	Leavenworth County	80,745	43.4	46.1	12,101.1	N/A
8	Cass County	103,597	41.9	47.5	12,833.4	140.9
9	Wyandotte County	164,861	41.0	48.3	16,188.2	N/A
10	Lafayette County	32,597	40.3	42.6	13,439.9	214.7
11	Caldwell County	9,039	34.5	21.9	12,081.0	199.1
12	Johnson County	591,506	34.3	33.1	12,437.9	N/A
13	Clay County	242,516	18.8	19.6	5,700.7	81.6
14	Platte County	100,682	11.4	12.5	5,553.1	57.6

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