After adding over 702,000 new cases throughout the last week, the U.S. now has more than 81.9 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. There have been more than 990,000 COVID-19-related deaths — the highest death toll of any country.

New cases continue to rise at a faster rate. In the past week, there were an average of 26.7 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 Americans — an increase from the week prior, when there were an average of 20.3 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.

In the 50 largest metro areas, the incidence of coronavirus grew at an average rate of 28.9 new cases a day per 100,000 residents in the past week — 15.1% greater than the case growth in all counties outside of metro areas.

The Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV, metro area consists of Fairfax County, Montgomery County, Prince George’s County, and 22 other counties. In the past week, there were an average of 38.1 new coronavirus cases every day per 100,000 Washington residents, greater than the national figure. The metro area’s average daily case growth in the most recent week is an increase from the week prior, when there was an average of 25.0 daily new cases per 100,000 Washington residents.

The spread of coronavirus depends on a variety of factors and can vary even between neighboring counties. Within the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metro area, COVID-19 is growing the fastest in Arlington County, Virginia. There were an average of 69.6 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in Arlington County during the past week, the most of the 25 counties in Washington with available data.

Case growth in the Washington metro area varies widely at the county level. In Rappahannock County, for example, there were an average of 8.9 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in the past week — the least of any county in Washington and far more than the case growth rate in Arlington County.

While Arlington County is driving the growth of COVID-19 in the Washington area, it does not have the highest incidence of cases overall. As of May 19, there were a total of 20,077.2 confirmed cases per 100,000 residents in Arlington County, the 11th most of the 25 counties in the metro area. For comparison, the U.S. has so far reported 25,247.6 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 Arlington County, unemployment peaked at 7.0% in April 2020. As of June 2021, the county’s unemployment rate was 3.6%.

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 May 19. 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.

Click here to see all current COVID-19 data for Washington D.C.

Rank in MSA	County	Population	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending May 19	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending May 12	Cumulative cases per 100,000	Cumulative deaths per 100,000
1	Arlington County	233,464	69.6	58.7	20,077.2	137.9
2	Falls Church city	14,128	67.5	50.6	15,954.1	120.3
3	Alexandria city	157,613	55.9	45.0	20,950.0	119.9
4	District of Columbia	692,683	53.0	6.3	21,101.0	193.7
5	Loudoun County	395,134	44.4	32.3	18,374.0	97.4
6	Fairfax County	1,145,862	42.7	33.4	16,591.4	127.0
7	Montgomery County	1,043,530	41.9	29.7	17,261.6	196.2
8	Fredericksburg city	28,622	36.2	24.7	19,359.2	146.7
9	Stafford County	146,773	36.1	24.0	21,472.6	120.6
10	Jefferson County	56,506	31.0	20.2	25,784.9	233.6
11	Prince William County	461,423	29.4	22.6	21,375.0	162.1
12	Charles County	159,428	28.3	18.8	18,316.7	221.4
13	Spotsylvania County	132,833	25.4	25.5	20,932.3	226.6
14	Frederick County	251,422	24.4	16.8	18,767.6	208.8
15	Culpeper County	51,101	23.6	17.5	22,555.3	291.6
16	Clarke County	14,423	23.5	16.1	18,671.6	291.2
17	Prince George’s County	908,670	22.2	17.5	19,414.7	238.4
18	Fauquier County	69,728	21.7	12.2	19,110.0	206.5
19	Manassas city	41,174	21.7	17.6	22,667.2	172.4
20	Madison County	13,170	19.1	15.8	18,686.4	311.3
21	Calvert County	91,511	18.5	10.5	12,600.7	159.5
22	Manassas Park city	16,986	17.7	9.0	22,665.7	159.0
23	Warren County	39,492	16.0	11.5	22,045.0	397.5
24	Fairfax city	23,531	14.1	16.7	8,801.2	182.7
25	Rappahannock County	7,378	8.9	10.8	14,272.2	135.5

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