This Is the County in the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD Metro Area With the Least COVID-19

As the omicron variant spreads, new daily cases of COVID-19 have hit new highs in the United States. To date, 73,010,190 Americans have been infected with the virus — and 872,453 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 Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington metropolitan area, which covers parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, a total of 1,194,893 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 19,687 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — below the national rate of 22,316 cases per 100,000 people.

The lower than average per capita COVID-19 infection rate across Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington is being driven by one area in particular.

The broader Philadelphia metro area comprises 11 counties or county equivalents — and of them, Cecil County in Maryland has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 14,108 infections in Cecil County, or 13,762 for every 100,000 people.

Not only does Cecil County have the lowest per capita infection rate in the Philadelphia metro area, it also has a relatively low per capita fatality rate.

There have been a total of 231 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Cecil County, below the 272 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of Jan. 31, 2022.

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