Special Report

This Is the County in the Cape Girardeau, MO-IL Metro Area With the Least COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: July 20, 2022 2:15 am

To date, 88,027,926 Americans are confirmed to have been infected with COVID-19 — and over 1 million 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 Cape Girardeau metropolitan area, which covers parts of Missouri and Illinois, a total of 23,907 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 24,612 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — below the national rate of 26,906 cases per 100,000 people.

The lower than average per capita COVID-19 infection rate across Cape Girardeau is being driven by one area in particular.

The broader Cape Girardeau metro area comprises three counties or county equivalents — and of them, Alexander County in Illinois has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 1,375 confirmed infections in Alexander County, or 21,050 for every 100,000 people.

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

There have been a total of 230 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Alexander County, below the 314 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Cape Girardeau metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of July 17, 2022.

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