Special Report

This Is the County in the Scranton--Wilkes-Barre--Hazleton, PA Metro Area With the Least COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: December 22, 2021 2:00 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 Scranton–Wilkes-Barre–Hazleton metropolitan area, located in Pennsylvania, a total of 80,177 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 14,396 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — below the national rate of 15,314 cases per 100,000 people.

The lower than average per capita COVID-19 infection rate across Scranton–Wilkes-Barre–Hazleton is being driven by one area in particular.

The broader Scranton metro area comprises three counties or county equivalents — and of them, Wyoming County in Pennsylvania has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 3,537 infections in Wyoming County, or 12,821 for every 100,000 people.

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

There have been a total of 275 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Wyoming County, below the 300 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Scranton–Wilkes-Barre–Hazleton metro area.

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

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