by WorldTribune Staff, September 27, 2020

As of Sept. 15, 30 U.S. counties had accounted for 26 percent of all coronavirus cases in the country and 40 percent of all virus deaths, a report said.

The number of cases and deaths for those counties “is much greater” that their share of the population (18.4 percent), Heritage Foundation researchers Drew Gonshorowski and Norbert Michel noted in a Sept. 22 op-ed for The Daily Signal.

Those 30 counties make up just 1 percent of the total number of counties in the United States.

“As our research has pointed out, state-level figures do not adequately describe the concentrated nature of the spread of COVID-19,” the writers noted. “Moreover, even though the U.S. saw a rapid rise in cases during the summer, the overall levels of concentration have remained fairly consistent.”

King County and Queens County, both in New York City, topped the list, each with more than 7,000 covid deaths.

“Specifically, when withholding the New York City metropolitan statistical area cases, the overall case rate for New York state plummets by 71 percent (from 22,065 to 6,505), a level that is well below the national average,” the writers noted.

More than 6,500 of California’s 15,000 recorded virus deaths have occurred in Los Angeles County, which is third on the list.

Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, all in South Florida, account for nearly half of the state’s virus deaths.

As of Sept. 15, 60 percent of all counties had reported 10 or fewer deaths. Those counties represent 13.1 percent of the U.S. population, and account for only 2.7 percent of total covid deaths.

In contrast, the five counties with the most coronavirus deaths represent just 0.2 percent of all counties, but they account for 16 percent of all COVID-19 deaths, nearly three times their population share of 6.5 percent, the writers noted.

“These tools help put the concentrated nature of the pandemic in perspective with county-level data. They show just how difficult it can be to use only one metric to gauge whether a county — or state — is doing well,” the writers noted.

A full list of the 50 counties with the most covid deaths, as of Sept. 15, can be seen here

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