This Is The County In The Athens-Clarke County, GA Metro Area With The Most COVID-19

By Samuel Stebbins, 24/7 Wall St. Atlanta

2021-04-28

Though vaccine distribution is well underway across the United States, the novel coronavirus continues to spread through the population. To date, there have been 31,708,400 reported cases of the virus nationwide — and that number is growing every day.

In the Athens-Clarke County metropolitan area, located in Georgia, a total of 23,535 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 11,464 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — above the national rate of 9,692 cases per 100,000 people.

The higher than average per capita COVID-19 infection rate across Athens-Clarke County is being driven by a high concentration of the virus in one area in particular.

The broader Athens metro area comprises four counties or county equivalents, which can include independent cities — and of them, Clarke County has the most COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 14,898 infections in Clarke County, or 11,956 for every 100,000 people.

A relatively high infection rate does not necessarily mean COVID-19 related fatalities per capita are higher in Clarke County than they are across all of the Athens area, however. There have been a total of 115 coronavirus deaths for every 100,000 people in Clarke County, compared to 146 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Athens-Clarke County metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of April 26, 2021.

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

This story was originally published by 24/7 Wall St., a news organization that produces real-time business commentary and data-driven reporting for state and local markets across the country.