Special Report

This Is the County in the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, AR-MO Metro Area With the Least COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: December 8, 2021 2:45 am

Despite the ongoing vaccination effort, new daily cases of COVID-19 are beginning to rise once again in parts of the United States. To date, 48,551,622 Americans have been infected with the virus — and 779,587 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 Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers metropolitan area, which covers parts of Arkansas and Missouri, a total of 96,387 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 18,310 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — above the national rate of 14,840 cases per 100,000 people.

Though per capita cases of COVID-19 are higher in Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers than they are nationwide, some parts of the metro area are safer than others.

The broader Fayetteville metro area comprises four counties or county equivalents — and of them, McDonald County in Missouri has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 3,758 infections in McDonald County, or 16,463 for every 100,000 people.

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

There have been a total of 245 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in McDonald County, above the 232 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of Dec. 6, 2021.

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