After adding over 682,000 new cases throughout the last week, the U.S. now has more than 48.2 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. There have been more than 770,000 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 0.8 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 Americans — essentially unchanged from the week prior, when there were an average of 1.7 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 Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI, metro area consists of Hennepin County, Ramsey County, Dakota County, and 12 other counties. In the past week, there were an average of 0.9 new coronavirus cases every day per 100,000 Minneapolis residents, in line with 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 were an average of 1.7 daily new cases per 100,000 Minneapolis residents.

The spread of coronavirus depends on a variety of factors and can vary even between neighboring counties. Within the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington metro area, COVID-19 is growing the slowest in St. Croix County, Wisconsin. There were an average of 0.0 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in St. Croix County during the past week, the least of the 15 counties in Minneapolis with available data.

Case growth in the Minneapolis metro area varies widely at the county level. In Mille Lacs County, for example, there were an average of 1.6 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in the past week — the most of any county in Minneapolis and far more than the case growth rate in St. Croix County.

While St. Croix County has the slowest case growth in the Minneapolis area, it does not have the lowest incidence of cases overall. As of December 2, there were a total of 18,028.4 confirmed cases per 100,000 residents in St. Croix County, the 11th fewest of the 15 counties in the metro area. For comparison, the U.S. has so far reported 14,869.9 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 St. Croix County, unemployment peaked at 16.1% in April 2020. As of June 2021, the county’s unemployment rate was 3.8%.

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 December 2. 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 Minnesota 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 December 2	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending November 25	Cumulative cases per 100,000	Cumulative deaths per 100,000
1	St. Croix County	88,732	0.0	0.6	18,028.4	102.6
2	Sherburne County	94,463	0.2	1.3	20,027.9	133.4
3	Le Sueur County	28,242	0.4	1.0	16,206.4	116.8
4	Scott County	145,275	0.7	1.2	17,788.3	124.6
5	Dakota County	421,453	0.7	1.4	15,981.6	136.2
6	Anoka County	350,253	0.7	1.7	18,230.3	162.7
7	Hennepin County	1,245,837	0.8	2.0	14,291.5	162.4
8	Pierce County	41,977	0.9	1.0	17,890.7	128.6
9	Carver County	101,949	1.0	0.4	16,292.5	64.7
10	Washington County	255,938	1.1	1.4	15,765.1	139.1
11	Isanti County	39,430	1.2	1.8	17,697.2	210.5
12	Ramsey County	544,442	1.3	2.5	13,532.8	191.6
13	Chisago County	55,315	1.4	1.1	17,939.1	141.0
14	Wright County	134,438	1.5	1.1	19,213.3	160.7
15	Mille Lacs County	25,865	1.6	3.8	20,467.8	286.1

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