Special Report

This Is the County in the Grand Rapids-Wyoming, MI Metro Area With the Least COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: December 22, 2021 2:45 am

Despite the ongoing vaccination effort, new daily cases of COVID-19 are rising once again in much of the United States. To date, 50,102,068 Americans have been infected with the virus — and 796,205 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 Grand Rapids-Wyoming metropolitan area, located in Michigan, a total of 191,843 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 18,263 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — above the national rate of 15,314 cases per 100,000 people.

Though per capita cases of COVID-19 are higher in Grand Rapids-Wyoming than they are nationwide, some parts of the metro area are safer than others.

The broader Grand Rapids metro area comprises four counties or county equivalents — and of them, Barry County in Michigan has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 10,318 infections in Barry County, or 17,180 for every 100,000 people.

Though Barry County has the lowest per capita infection rate in the Grand Rapids metro area, its per capita fatality rate is closely in line with the regional average.

There have been a total of 201 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Barry County, compared to 197 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Grand Rapids-Wyoming metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of Dec. 17, 2021.

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