Special Report

This is the County in Iowa Where the Most People Have Died of COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: April 16, 2021 5:00 am

Of the 99 counties and county equivalents in Iowa with current data, Harrison County has had the highest number of deaths attributed to COVID-19 per capita to date. Since the first COVID-19-related death was reported in the United States on Feb. 29, 2020, 73 people have died of the virus in Harrison County — or about 516 for every 100,000 people.

For reference, across all of Iowa, the population-adjusted coronavirus death toll stands at 186 for every 100,000 people.

Just as the population-adjusted death toll in Harrison County exceeds that of the state as a whole, it is also higher than the comparable national figure. To date, 557,415 Americans have died of COVID-19- related causes, equal to about 170 deaths per 100,000 people.

As is often the case in places with higher than average coronavirus fatalities per capita, confirmed cases of the virus per capita are also higher in Harrison County than they are across much of the rest of the state. The cumulative, population-adjusted number of infections in the county stands at 12,352 per 100,000 people, higher than the comparable rate across all of Iowa of 11,317 for every 100,000 people.

Counties and county equivalents where COVID-19 deaths per capita are relatively high are often home to larger populations of individuals at increased risk of severe illness if they are infected. One such group is retirement-age Americans. People 65 and older are at least 90 times more likely to die from the novel coronavirus, if infected, than those in the 18 to 29 age range. With the highest COVID-19 mortality rate per capita in the state, Harrison County is also home to a relatively large retirement-age population. An estimated 19.4% of county residents are 65 or older, compared to the 16.7% share of all Iowa residents.

Though the U.S. has one of the highest per capita COVID-19 death rates in the world, Americans infected with the virus today appear more likely to survive than those who were infected earlier in the pandemic. Medical care providers now have months of experience treating COVID-19, and over that period have established more effective practices in treating the disease. According to one study conducted by researchers at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine released in October, the chances of death among critically ill patients was 18 percentage points lower in August 2020 than it was in March.

Inoculations against the coronavirus, which are well underway in the United States, will also slow the death rate. Encouragingly, Harrison County has not reported a single COVID-19 related death in the past week.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of April 14, 2021.

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