After adding over 514,000 new cases throughout the last week, the U.S. now has more than 34.2 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. There have been more than 600,000 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 20.0 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 Americans — an increase from the week prior, when there were an average of 10.3 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 different neighborhoods and a large population may be particularly at-risk.

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 4.2 new coronavirus cases every day per 100,000 Washington residents, less than 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 3.0 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 slowest in Clarke County, Virginia. There were an average of 0.0 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in Clarke County during the past week, the least of the 25 counties in Washington with available data.

Case growth in the Washington metro area varies at the county level. In Fredericksburg city, for example, there were an average of 8.5 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in the past week — the most of any county in Washington and more than the case growth rate in Clarke County.

While Clarke County has the slowest case growth in the Washington area, it does not have the lowest incidence of cases overall. As of July 29, there were a total of 6,871.0 confirmed cases per 100,000 residents in Clarke County, the eighth fewest of the 25 counties in the metro area. For comparison, the U.S. has so far reported 10,550.2 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 Clarke County, unemployment peaked at 8.1% in April 2020. As of April 2021, the county’s unemployment rate was 3.7%.

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 July 29. 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.

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 July 29	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending July 22	Cumulative cases per 100,000	Cumulative deaths per 100,000
1	Clarke County	14,423	0.0	0.0	6,871.0	145.6
2	Falls Church city	14,128	0.0	0.0	3,043.6	56.6
3	Fairfax city	23,531	0.2	0.7	2,401.1	80.7
4	Manassas Park city	16,986	1.6	0.5	7,229.5	64.8
5	Calvert County	91,511	2.2	1.4	4,679.2	94.0
6	Manassas city	41,174	2.5	1.0	10,511.5	116.6
7	Frederick County	251,422	2.7	2.3	7,946.0	136.8
8	Jefferson County	56,506	2.9	1.4	8,546.0	106.2
9	Montgomery County	1,043,530	3.0	2.3	6,879.3	156.3
10	Arlington County	233,464	3.1	2.8	6,611.3	110.5
11	Rappahannock County	7,378	3.6	1.1	4,865.8	27.1
12	Madison County	13,170	3.7	0.6	4,722.9	106.3
13	Warren County	39,492	3.8	5.4	8,009.2	154.5
14	Fairfax County	1,145,862	3.9	2.5	6,793.0	98.2
15	Charles County	159,428	4.0	2.9	6,954.9	136.1
16	Culpeper County	51,101	4.2	3.2	9,320.8	131.1
17	Prince George’s County	908,670	4.3	3.8	9,495.9	176.3
18	Alexandria city	157,613	4.7	3.4	7,623.7	89.5
19	Fauquier County	69,728	5.1	5.6	6,954.2	99.0
20	Prince William County	461,423	5.3	3.7	10,009.0	111.0
21	Loudoun County	395,134	5.3	2.7	7,181.4	71.6
22	District of Columbia	692,683	5.8	3.8	7,214.4	165.4
23	Stafford County	146,773	6.0	4.6	7,962.6	56.5
24	Spotsylvania County	132,833	6.5	3.8	7,791.7	94.1
25	Fredericksburg city	28,622	8.5	1.8	7,634.0	87.3

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