The 40 Counties Where More Than 1,000 Americans Have Died From COVID-19

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
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The 40 Counties Where More Than 1,000 Americans Have Died From COVID-19

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COVID-19 has infected 8,498,360 people in America, a figure that surged 65,353 yesterday as a third wave of the disease spread across almost the entire country, with single-day records for increases in several states. Fatal cases have just passed a milestone of 225,000 and reached 226,314. Many forecasts show the number of deaths will hit 300,000 by year’s end. Nearly 80,000 of these deaths have occurred in just 40 counties out of America’s 3,141.

Several counties are among those hit earliest in the most deadly wave of the pandemic, which started in and around New York City. Deaths soared in late March and remained at high levels for over a month.

The four largest boroughs of the city itself took much of the brunt. New York County, which contains Manhattan, had 2,119 deaths. Bronx County had 3,396, and Kings County, which contains Brooklyn, had 5,103. Queens County had 5,135.

New Jersey counties near New York City also suffered badly. Middlesex (1,441 deaths), Passaic (1,260), Essex (2,137), Union (1,364), Bergen (2,055), Ocean (1,059) and Hudson (1,524) Counties all had over 1,000 fatalities. Hudson and Essex Counties are just across the Hudson River from Manhattan. Bergen County is across the river from the Bronx, and Union County is across from Brooklyn.
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Two other areas adjacent to New York City also were hit hard. These were Westchester County (1,470 coronavirus deaths) to the north and Nassau County (2,208) to the east. Fairfield County, Connecticut, the county closest to New York City in that state, had 1,429 fatal cases.

Parts of the Midwest also were hit relatively early. Wayne County, Michigan, which includes Detroit, the most impoverished large city in America, had 3,031 deaths. Oakland County, adjacent to the north has had 1,228 deaths. Macomb County, also to the north, has had 1,070.

Cook County, Illinois, home to Chicago, had 5,382. That is also the second-most populous county in America, with 5,180,493 residents.

The hardest-hit state, based on confirmed cases, is California with 896,424. It has posted 17,266 deaths. Los Angeles County, the largest county in America, with a population of 10,105,518, has had 6,877 deaths, the highest count of any county in the nation. Adjacent Riverside County has had 1,272, and nearby Orange County has had 1,410. San Bernardino County, just to the east of Los Angeles, has had 1,021 deaths.

Texas is the hardest-hit state after California, based on confirmed cases at 891,074. The state has posted 17,760 deaths. Harris County, home to Houston, has had 2,750 fatal cases. It is the third-most populous county, with 4,698,619 residents. Dallas County has recorded 1,205 COVD-19 fatalities.

Florida is the third hardest-hit state, based on confirmed cases at 768,091. A total of 16,470 fatal cases have been recorded in the state. Miami-Dade County has had 3,561 fatal cases. Just to its north, Palm Beach County had 1,510.

As the third wave of COVID-19 continues through the rest of this year and perhaps into early 2021, it is almost certain that the list of counties with over 1,000 deaths will grow.

County State Population Deaths
Essex New Jersey 793,555 2,137
Passaic New Jersey 504,041 1,260
Union New Jersey 553,066 1,364
Bronx New York 1,437,872 3,396
Hudson New Jersey 668,631 1,524
Queens New York 2,298,513 5,135
Bergen New Jersey 929,999 2,055
Kings New York 2,600,747 5,103
Hidalgo Texas 849,389 1,655
Ocean New Jersey 591,939 1,059
Middlesex New Jersey 826,698 1,441
Wayne Michigan 1,761,382 3,031
Essex Massachusetts 781,024 1,331
Hartford Connecticut 894,730 1,459
Nassau New York 1,356,564 2,208
Norfolk Massachusetts 698,249 1,094
Westchester New York 968,815 1,470
Fairfield Connecticut 944,348 1,429
Suffolk Massachusetts 791,766 1,163
Worcester Massachusetts 822,280 1,154
Middlesex Massachusetts 1,595,192 2,232
Suffolk New York 1,487,901 2,019
Miami-Dade Florida 2,715,516 3,561
New Haven Connecticut 859,339 1,121
New York New York 1,632,480 2,119
Macomb Michigan 868,704 1,070
Philadelphia Pennsylvania 1,575,522 1,868
Palm Beach Florida 1,446,277 1,510
Cook Illinois 5,223,719 5,382
Oakland Michigan 1,250,843 1,228
Maricopa Arizona 4,253,913 3,532
Broward Florida 1,909,151 1,517
Bexar Texas 1,925,865 1,385
Clark Nevada 2,141,574 1,487
Los Angeles California 10,098,052 6,877
Harris Texas 4,602,523 2,750
Riverside California 2,383,286 1,272
San Bernardino California 2,135,413 1,021
Dallas Texas 2,586,552 1,205
Orange California 3,164,182 1,410

At the far end of the spectrum, these are the 358 counties where no one has died from COVID-19.
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Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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