Health and Healthcare

These Are the Counties Where No One Has Died of COVID-19

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: March 2, 2021 9:19 am

The pace of the spread of COVID-19 has slowed across America. Increases in daily fatal cases and confirmed cases are about half what they were seven weeks ago. Nevertheless, 519,735 Americans have died, which about 20% of the world’s total. Confirmed cases have reached 28,936,161, or about 25% of the global number. As important as these statistics, hospitalizations have fallen below 50,000 for the first time since November. The range of the severity of the disease by state and county varies considerably. In a very small number of the 3,143 counties and county-equivalents, not a single person has died.

The pace of the spread of the disease remains a race to some extent between vaccinations and a rising number of potentially dangerous variants. At this point, about 15% of the adult population has received at least one dose of vaccine. About 8% have received two shots. According to the COVID Data Tracker, 96,402,490 doses have been delivered in the United States and 76,899,987 doses have been administered.

Variants are among the dangers epidemiologist and public health officials worry about. At least one, from the United Kingdom, could account for most new cases by the end of March. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently tracks three variants for the public. At this point, they are present in 46 states.

The number of counties where no one has died has dropped to just 57. Only one has a population of over 10,000 people. San Juan County, Washington, has 16,473 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The county covers an island northwest of Seattle, near the Canadian border. Of the population, 88% are white. The median household income in the county is $63,622, slightly below the national figure. At 8.1%, the poverty rate is lower than the national number.

None of the counties without COVID-19 deaths has more than 1,000 cases. Two have less than 10. Loving County, Texas, with a population of 102 has only one case. An examination of the list shows most of the counties where no one has died are in rural states, particularly Kansas, Nebraska and Alaska.

These are the 57 counties where no one has died of COVID-19:

Click here to see which state is the worst at giving two COVID-19 vaccine doses.