After adding over 378,000 new cases throughout the last week, the U.S. now has more than 78.3 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. There have been more than 940,000 COVID-19-related deaths — the highest death toll of any country.

New cases continue to rise, albeit at a slowing rate. In the past week, there were an average of 22.6 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 Americans — a decrease from the week prior, when there were an average of 31.4 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 San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX, metro area consists of Bexar County, Guadalupe County, Comal County, and five other counties. In the past week, there were an average of 29.8 new coronavirus cases every day per 100,000 San Antonio residents, greater than the national figure. The metro area’s average daily case growth in the most recent week is a decrease from the week prior, when there was an average of 41.4 daily new cases per 100,000 San Antonio residents.

The spread of coronavirus depends on a variety of factors and can vary even between neighboring counties. Within the San Antonio-New Braunfels metro area, COVID-19 is growing the fastest in Medina County. There were an average of 45.5 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in Medina County during the past week, the most of the eight counties in San Antonio with available data.

Case growth in the San Antonio metro area varies widely at the county level. In Bandera County, for example, there were an average of 11.5 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in the past week — the least of any county in San Antonio and far more than the case growth rate in Medina County.

While Medina County is driving the growth of COVID-19 in the San Antonio area, it does not have the highest incidence of cases overall. As of March 3, there were a total of 19,831.4 confirmed cases per 100,000 residents in Medina County, the sixth most of the eight counties in the metro area. For comparison, the U.S. has so far reported 24,130.9 cases per 100,000 Americans nationwide.

The pandemic has led to the closure of thousands of consumer-facing businesses around the country. These changes have led to widespread job loss and record unemployment. In Medina County, unemployment peaked at 10.6% in May 2020. As of June 2021, the county’s unemployment rate was 5.7%.

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 March 3. 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 Texas 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 March 3	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending February 24	Cumulative cases per 100,000	Cumulative deaths per 100,000
1	Medina County	50,057	45.5	33.0	19,831.4	383.6
2	Comal County	141,642	35.8	37.7	22,674.8	373.5
3	Atascosa County	49,528	35.3	34.3	26,772.7	456.3
4	Guadalupe County	158,966	29.8	38.9	23,116.9	242.8
5	Bexar County	1,952,843	29.6	43.3	27,887.7	302.8
6	Kendall County	43,769	22.0	30.5	18,225.2	262.7
7	Wilson County	49,173	17.1	22.3	21,670.4	315.2
8	Bandera County	22,215	11.5	21.5	15,818.1	333.1

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