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 Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL, metro area consists of Orange County, Seminole County, Lake County, and one other county. In the past week, there were an average of 0.4 new coronavirus cases every day per 100,000 Orlando 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 1.2 daily new cases per 100,000 Orlando residents.

The spread of coronavirus depends on a variety of factors and can vary even between neighboring counties. Within the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford metro area, COVID-19 is growing the slowest in Orange County. There were an average of 0.3 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in Orange County during the past week, the least of the four counties in Orlando with available data.

Case growth in the Orlando metro area varies at the county level. In Osceola County, for example, there were an average of 0.7 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in the past week — the most of any county in Orlando and more than the case growth rate in Orange County.

While Orange County has the slowest case growth in the Orlando area, it does not have the lowest incidence of cases overall. As of December 2, there were a total of 17,247.0 confirmed cases per 100,000 residents in Orange County, the third fewest of the four 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 Orange County, unemployment peaked at 21.7% in May 2020. As of June 2021, the county’s unemployment rate was 6.1%.

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 Florida 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	Orange County	1,349,746	0.3	1.0	17,247.0	168.2
2	Seminole County	461,402	0.4	1.4	13,758.7	192.5
3	Lake County	345,867	0.5	1.6	16,175.9	356.5
4	Osceola County	351,955	0.7	1.7	20,864.9	258.8

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