Special Report

This Is the County in the Duluth, MN-WI Metro Area With the Most COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: November 2, 2021 2:45 am

Following a months long surge driven by the delta variant, new daily cases of COVID-19 are falling once again in the United States. To date, there have been 45,445,700 reported cases of the virus nationwide — and that number is growing every day.

In the Duluth metropolitan area, which covers parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin, a total of 34,809 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 12,475 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — below the national rate of 13,891 cases per 100,000 people.

Even though Duluth has fewer COVID-19 infections per capita than the national average, there are parts of the metro area that appear to be at higher risk than others.

The broader Duluth metro area comprises three counties or county equivalents, which can include independent cities — and of them, Douglas County has the most COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 6,034 infections in Douglas County, or 13,903 for every 100,000 people.

A relatively high infection rate does not necessarily mean COVID-19 related fatalities per capita are higher in Douglas County than they are across all of the Duluth area, however. There have been a total of 152 coronavirus deaths for every 100,000 people in Douglas County, compared to 177 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Duluth metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of Oct. 29, 2021.

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