Special Report

This is the County in the St. Joseph, MO-KS Metro Area With the Most Deaths From COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: February 18, 2021 6:00 am

The Biden Administration has announced plans to inoculate 300 million Americans against the novel coronavirus by the end of the summer. Achieving this goal will, hopefully, allow life in the United States to return to some degree of normalcy after COVID-19 wreaked havoc for well over a year. So far, the virus has claimed 472,985 American lives — more than the total number of Americans killed in World War I and World War II combined.

In the St. Joseph metropolitan area, which covers parts of Missouri and Kansas, a total of 170 deaths have been attributed to the virus, equal to 134 fatalities for every 100,000 people. Nationwide, the per capita death rate stands at 145 per 100,000.

Though deaths attributable to the virus are less common across the metro area than they are nationwide, this is not the case in some parts of the city.

The broader St. Joseph metro area comprises four counties or county equivalents — and of them, DeKalb County has had the most COVID-19 fatalities per capita. So far, the per capita death coronavirus death rate in DeKalb County stands at 207 for every 100,000 people.

Though it has the highest per capita death rate in the St. Joseph metro area, DeKalb County ranks among the middle 50% of all U.S. counties or county equivalents with at least one COVID-19 fatality, by death rate per capita.

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