After adding over 36,000 new cases on May 13, the U.S. now has more than 32.4 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. There have been more than 570,000 COVID-19-related deaths — the highest death toll of any country.

New cases continue to rise at a steady rate. In the past week, there were an average of 13.6 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 Americans — essentially unchanged from the week prior, when there were an average of 15.3 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 people.

While COVID-19 has spread to nearly every part of the country, cities continue to be the sites of major outbreaks. Experts agree that the virus is more likely to spread in group settings where large numbers of people routinely have close contact with one another, such as colleges, nursing homes, bars, and restaurants. Metropolitan areas with a high degree of connectivity between neighborhoods and a large population may be particularly at-risk.

The Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV, metro area consists of Fairfax County, Montgomery County, Prince George’s County, and 22 other counties. In the past week, there were an average of 8.3 new coronavirus cases every day per 100,000 Washington residents, less than the national figure. The metro area’s average daily case growth in the most recent week is essentially unchanged from the week prior, when there was an average of 10.8 daily new cases per 100,000 Washington residents.

The spread of coronavirus depends on a variety of factors and can vary even between neighboring counties. Within the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metro area, COVID-19 is growing the fastest in Culpeper County, Virginia. There were an average of 17.4 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in Culpeper County during the past week, the most of the 25 counties in Washington with available data.

Case growth in the Washington metro area varies widely at the county level. In Manassas city, for example, there were an average of 1.6 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in the past week — the least of any county in Washington and far more than the case growth rate in Culpeper County.

While Culpeper County is driving the growth of COVID-19 in the Washington area, it does not have the highest incidence of cases overall. As of May 13, there were a total of 9,048.7 confirmed cases per 100,000 residents in Culpeper County, the fourth most of the 25 counties in the metro area. For comparison, the U.S. has so far reported 9,997.3 cases per 100,000 Americans nationwide.

In order to slow the spread of COVID-19, city and county governments have ordered the closure of thousands of consumer-facing businesses. These measures have led to widespread job loss and record unemployment. In Culpeper County, unemployment peaked at 9.0% in April 2020. As of March 2021, the county’s unemployment rate was 4.4%.

To determine the county in every metropolitan area where COVID-19 is growing the fastest, 24/7 Wall St. compiled and reviewed data from state and local health departments. We ranked counties according to the average number of new daily COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the seven days ending May 13. To estimate the incidence of COVID-19 at the metropolitan level, we aggregated data up from the county level using boundary definitions from the U.S. Census Bureau. Population data used to adjust case and death totals came from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2019 American Community Survey and are five-year estimates. Unemployment data is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and is not seasonally adjusted.

Click here to see all current COVID-19 data for Washington D.C.

Rank in MSA	County	Population	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending May 13	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending May 6	Cumulative cases per 100,000	Cumulative deaths per 100,000
1	Culpeper County	51,101	17.4	11.2	9,048.7	121.3
2	Spotsylvania County	132,833	17.4	18.6	7,474.0	88.1
3	Jefferson County	56,506	17.2	22.5	8,146.0	90.3
4	Fredericksburg city	28,622	16.3	26.0	7,413.9	80.4
5	Rappahannock County	7,378	16.0	15.5	4,798.0	27.1
6	Warren County	39,492	13.0	22.9	7,452.1	139.3
7	Stafford County	146,773	12.5	16.2	7,657.4	53.8
8	Prince George’s County	908,670	11.4	14.6	9,242.8	163.1
9	Clarke County	14,423	10.5	10.9	6,780.8	131.7
10	Prince William County	461,423	10.4	12.3	9,766.3	106.0
11	Charles County	159,428	10.1	12.8	6,697.1	120.4
12	Loudoun County	395,134	9.5	11.8	7,006.7	69.8
13	District of Columbia	692,683	8.7	11.1	6,970.3	160.7
14	Alexandria city	157,613	7.3	8.7	7,460.7	85.0
15	Manassas Park city	16,986	7.1	13.5	7,164.7	64.8
16	Madison County	13,170	6.8	9.3	4,669.7	121.5
17	Frederick County	251,422	6.5	9.7	7,791.7	128.1
18	Arlington County	233,464	6.5	8.8	6,527.3	108.8
19	Fairfax County	1,145,862	6.3	8.2	6,672.7	94.0
20	Montgomery County	1,043,530	5.0	7.3	6,736.6	146.5
21	Fauquier County	69,728	4.1	10.5	6,670.2	94.7
22	Falls Church city	14,128	3.9	5.3	3,043.6	63.7
23	Calvert County	91,511	3.8	6.9	4,568.8	85.2
24	Fairfax city	23,531	3.7	4.2	2,362.8	80.7
25	Manassas city	41,174	1.6	3.9	10,438.6	114.1

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