These Are the Counties in the Rochester, NY 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 Rochester metropolitan area, located in New York, a total of 145,172 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 13,509 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — below the national rate of 15,314 cases per 100,000 people.

Even though Rochester has fewer COVID-19 infections per capita than the national average, there are parts of the metro area that appear to be at higher risk than others.

The broader Rochester metro area comprises six counties or county equivalents, which can include independent cities — and of them, Orleans County has the most COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 6,088 infections in Orleans County, or 14,786 for every 100,000 people.

Not only does Orleans County have the most COVID-19 infections per capita in the Rochester 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 243 coronavirus deaths for every 100,000 people in Orleans County, compared to 163 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Rochester metro area.

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

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