Special Report

This Is the County in the Champaign-Urbana, 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 Champaign-Urbana metropolitan area, located in Illinois, a total of 82,313 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 34,401 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — above the national rate of 26,906 cases per 100,000 people.

Though per capita cases of COVID-19 are higher in Champaign-Urbana than they are nationwide, some parts of the metro area are safer than others.

The broader Champaign metro area comprises three counties or county equivalents — and of them, Piatt County in Illinois has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 4,860 confirmed infections in Piatt County, or 29,585 for every 100,000 people.

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

There have been a total of 140 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Piatt County, below the 160 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Champaign-Urbana 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).