Special Report

This is the County in the Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL Metro Area With the Least COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: September 10, 2021 3:45 am

With slowing vaccination rates and the emergence of the delta variant, COVID-19 continues to spread through the United States. To date, 39,893,580 Americans have been infected with the virus — and 635,606 have died as a result. On a per capita basis, the U.S. has one of the highest known infections rates in the world.

In the Davenport-Moline-Rock Island metropolitan area, which covers parts of Iowa and Illinois, a total of 46,536 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 12,159 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — in line with the national rate of 12,194 cases per 100,000 people.

Though per capita cases of COVID-19 are closely in line with the national per capita infection rate in Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, there are still parts of the metro area where the per capita infection rate is relatively low.

The broader Davenport metro area comprises four counties or county equivalents — and of them, Mercer County in Illinois has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 1,767 infections in Mercer County, or 11,260 for every 100,000 people.

Though Mercer County has the lowest per capita infection rate in the Davenport metro area, its per capita fatality rate is disproportionately high.

There have been a total of 217 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Mercer County, above the 181 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Davenport-Moline-Rock Island metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of Sept. 8, 2021.

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