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 neighborhoods and a large population may be particularly at-risk.

The Raleigh-Cary, NC, metro area consists of Wake County, Johnston County, and Franklin County. In the past week, there were an average of 0.3 new coronavirus cases every day per 100,000 Raleigh 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 was an average of 0.7 daily new cases per 100,000 Raleigh residents.

The spread of coronavirus depends on a variety of factors and can vary even between neighboring counties. Within the Raleigh-Cary metro area, COVID-19 is growing the fastest in Franklin County. There were an average of 0.6 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in Franklin County during the past week, the most of the three counties in Raleigh with available data.

Case growth in the Raleigh metro area varies at the county level. In Wake County, for example, there were an average of 0.2 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in the past week — the least of any county in Raleigh and more than the case growth rate in Franklin County.

While Franklin County is driving the growth of COVID-19 in the Raleigh area, it does not have the highest incidence of cases overall. As of December 2, there were a total of 15,546.5 confirmed cases per 100,000 residents in Franklin County, the second most of the three 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 Franklin County, unemployment peaked at 11.5% in May 2020. As of June 2021, the county’s unemployment rate was 4.9%.

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 December 2. 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 North Carolina 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	Franklin County	66,362	0.6	0.7	15,546.5	96.4
2	Johnston County	196,870	0.4	0.9	17,079.8	172.2
3	Wake County	1,069,079	0.2	0.7	12,575.0	84.7

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