Special Report

This Is the County in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metro Area With the Least COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: July 20, 2022 5:45 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 Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metropolitan area, which covers all the District of Columbia, and parts of Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia, a total of 1,293,109 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 21,066 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 Washington-Arlington-Alexandria is being driven by one area in particular.

The broader Washington metro area comprises 24 counties or county equivalents — and of them, Fairfax, an independent city in Virginia has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 2,236 confirmed infections in Fairfax, or 9,369 for every 100,000 people.

Though Fairfax City has the lowest per capita infection rate in the Washington metro area, its per capita fatality rate is closely in line with the regional average.

There have been a total of 184 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Fairfax, compared to 182 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metro area.

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

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