After adding over 16,000 new cases on June 10, the U.S. now has more than 33.0 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. There have been more than 590,000 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 5.6 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 Americans — essentially unchanged from the week prior, when there were an average of 5.6 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 Columbia, MO, metro area consists of Boone County, Cooper County, and Howard County. In the past week, there were an average of 3.6 new coronavirus cases every day per 100,000 Columbia 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 were an average of 3.1 daily new cases per 100,000 Columbia residents.

The spread of coronavirus depends on a variety of factors and can vary even between neighboring counties. Within the Columbia metro area, COVID-19 is growing the slowest in Cooper County. There were an average of 1.3 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in Cooper County during the past week, the least of the three counties in Columbia with available data.

Case growth in the Columbia metro area varies widely at the county level. In Boone County, for example, there were an average of 3.9 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in the past week — the most of any county in Columbia and far more than the case growth rate in Cooper County.

While Cooper County has the slowest case growth in the Columbia area, it does not have the lowest incidence of cases overall. As of June 10, there were a total of 10,945.6 confirmed cases per 100,000 residents in Cooper County, the third fewest of the three counties in the metro area. For comparison, the U.S. has so far reported 10,185.8 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 Cooper County, unemployment peaked at 9.1% in April 2020. As of April 2021, the county’s unemployment rate was 2.9%.

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 June 10. 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.

These are all the counties in Missouri 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 June 10	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending June 3	Cumulative cases per 100,000	Cumulative deaths per 100,000
1	Cooper County	17,660	1.3	3.8	10,945.6	152.9
2	Howard County	10,058	2.4	4.1	10,538.9	69.6
3	Boone County	177,651	3.9	3.0	10,212.7	55.7

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