COVID-19: These Are the 5 Most Dangerous Counties in Your State

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Nov 24, 10:41AM EST

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COVID-19: These Are the 5 Most Dangerous Counties in Your State — © George Frey / Getty Images News via Getty Images

The acceleration in the spread of COVID-19 in the United States in the past month is nothing short of astonishing. Confirmed cases now routinely rise by over 150,000 a day, on the way to what experts think will be 250,000. Fatal cases per day have risen to 1,500, and experts fear that could double. Currently, total confirmed cases in the United States stand at 12,499,396 and fatalities at 261,387.

Some parts of the country are much worse off than others. Currently, the states in the upper Midwest are taking the brunt of the disease. This includes Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa. Case counts in states where the growth has slowed also have picked up. This includes, in particular, New York, which was hit worse than any other state in terms of deaths during a horrible period from late March through April. The state still has more fatal cases than any other.

The effects of the disease on any area are measured in several ways. Among the most widely followed are cases per 100,000 people. This shows how deeply COVID-19 has spread in any given county. It also can be a sign of likely future spread because such a large portion of the population already has been affected.

Until vaccines can slow and eventually start to eliminate COVID-19, people have to be on guard for the spread of the disease in their own communities. 24/7 Wall St. has looked at each state to determine the counties where the cases per 100,000 are the highest. We also have shown a more grim figure, which is deaths per 100,000.
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The ways that people can protect themselves regardless of the intensity of the spread of the disease have changed very little since the start of the pandemic. Wear masks, social distance, wash hands and when talking stay outside as much as possible. Just as important, do not gather inside in groups of more than a few people.

This list shows the five counties in each state where the cases per 100,000 are the highest. It provides a picture of which areas in a state are most dangerous in terms of the spread of the disease.

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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.