After adding over 80,000 new cases on Apr. 15, the U.S. now has more than 31.0 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. There have been more than 550,000 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 21.4 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 Americans — essentially unchanged from the week prior, when there were an average of 18.8 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 different neighborhoods and a large population may be particularly at-risk.

In the 50 largest metro areas, the incidence of coronavirus grew at an average rate of 23.6 new cases a day per 100,000 residents in the past week — 13.9% greater than the case growth in all counties outside of metro areas.

The Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC, metro area consists of the city of Virginia Beach, the city of Norfolk, the city of Chesapeake, and 16 other counties. In the past week, there were an average of 18.9 new coronavirus cases every day per 100,000 Virginia Beach residents, in line with 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 were an average of 18.1 daily new cases per 100,000 Virginia Beach residents.

The spread of coronavirus depends on a variety of factors and can vary even between neighboring counties. Within the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News metro area, COVID-19 is growing the slowest in Gates County, North Carolina. There were an average of 2.3 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in Gates County during the past week, the least of the 19 counties in Virginia Beach with available data.

Case growth in the Virginia Beach metro area varies widely at the county level. In Franklin city, for example, there were an average of 34.8 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in the past week — the most of any county in Virginia Beach and far more than the case growth rate in Gates County.

While Gates County has the slowest case growth in the Virginia Beach area, it does not have the lowest incidence of cases overall. As of Apr. 15, there were a total of 6,156.9 confirmed cases per 100,000 residents in Gates County, the seventh fewest of the 19 counties in the metro area. For comparison, the U.S. has so far reported 9,556.5 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 Gates County, unemployment peaked at 8.3% in May 2020. As of January 2021, the county’s unemployment rate was 5.1%.

To determine the county in every metropolitan area where COVID-19 is growing the slowest, 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 Apr. 15. To estimate the incidence of COVID-19 at the metropolitan level, we aggregated data 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.

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

Rank in MSA	County	Population	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending Apr. 15	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending Apr. 8	Cumulative cases per 100,000	Cumulative deaths per 100,000
1	Gates County	11,548	2.3	6.0	6,156.9	103.9
2	Currituck County	26,363	5.9	6.3	5,621.5	56.9
3	Southampton County	17,880	9.6	11.0	10,833.3	313.2
4	Camden County	10,551	10.4	2.9	5,980.5	47.4
5	Mathews County	8,788	10.7	8.1	6,725.1	136.5
6	James City County	74,916	13.5	17.8	5,878.6	93.4
7	York County	67,982	14.8	17.7	5,244.0	73.5
8	Gloucester County	37,222	15.8	13.3	5,730.5	126.3
9	Chesapeake city	239,982	17.4	15.1	8,342.3	117.5
10	Virginia Beach city	450,201	17.9	16.4	7,590.8	82.2
11	Isle of Wight County	36,627	18.9	23.1	8,215.3	172.0
12	Suffolk city	90,093	19.4	19.0	8,460.1	199.8
13	Norfolk city	244,601	20.7	17.5	6,853.6	98.1
14	Hampton city	135,041	21.2	21.6	7,325.9	122.2
15	Newport News city	179,673	23.3	24.3	7,361.2	120.8
16	Portsmouth city	95,097	23.4	19.2	9,043.4	192.4
17	Poquoson city	12,090	29.9	21.6	6,981.0	132.3
18	Williamsburg city	14,927	31.0	58.7	4,897.2	73.7
19	Franklin city	8,147	34.8	27.1	13,526.5	380.5

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