Special Report

This Is the County in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA Metro Area With the Least COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: July 20, 2022 3:15 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 Waterloo-Cedar Falls metropolitan area, located in Iowa, a total of 43,087 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 25,326 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 Waterloo-Cedar Falls is being driven by one area in particular.

The broader Waterloo metro area comprises three counties or county equivalents — and of them, Grundy County in Iowa has the fewest COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 2,666 confirmed infections in Grundy County, or 21,603 for every 100,000 people.

Though Grundy County has the lowest per capita infection rate in the Waterloo metro area, its per capita fatality rate is closely in line with the regional average.

There have been a total of 357 coronavirus-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Grundy County, compared to 364 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Waterloo-Cedar Falls metro area.

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

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