After adding over 455,000 new cases throughout the last week, the U.S. now has more than 44.6 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. There have been more than 710,000 COVID-19-related deaths — the highest death toll of any country.

New cases continue to rise at a steady rate. In the past week, there were an average of 27.7 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 Americans — essentially unchanged from the week prior, when there were an average of 28.5 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 people.

While COVID-19 has spread to nearly every part of the country, cities continue to be the sites of major outbreaks. Experts agree that the virus is more likely to spread in group settings where large numbers of people routinely have close contact with one another, such as colleges, nursing homes, bars, and restaurants. Metropolitan areas with a high degree of connectivity between neighborhoods and a large population may be particularly at-risk.

The Topeka, KS, metro area consists of Shawnee County, Jefferson County, Osage County, and two other counties. In the past week, there were an average of 22.0 new coronavirus cases every day per 100,000 Topeka residents, less than the national figure. The metro area’s average daily case growth in the most recent week is a decrease from the week prior, when there was an average of 27.2 daily new cases per 100,000 Topeka residents.

The spread of coronavirus depends on a variety of factors and can vary even between neighboring counties. Within the Topeka metro area, COVID-19 is growing the fastest in Jefferson County. There were an average of 27.2 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in Jefferson County during the past week, the most of the five counties in Topeka with available data.

Case growth in the Topeka metro area varies at the county level. In Osage County, for example, there were an average of 18.1 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in the past week — the least of any county in Topeka and more than the case growth rate in Jefferson County.

While Jefferson County is driving the growth of COVID-19 in the Topeka area, it does not have the highest incidence of cases overall. As of October 20, there were a total of 13,467.4 confirmed cases per 100,000 residents in Jefferson County, the third most of the five counties in the metro area. For comparison, the U.S. has so far reported 13,751.2 cases per 100,000 Americans nationwide.

In order to slow the spread of COVID-19, city and county governments have ordered the closure of thousands of consumer-facing businesses. These measures have led to widespread job loss and record unemployment. In Jefferson County, unemployment peaked at 10.2% in April 2020. As of June 2021, the county’s unemployment rate was 3.8%.

To determine the county in every metropolitan area where COVID-19 is growing the fastest, 24/7 Wall St. compiled and reviewed data from state and local health departments. We ranked counties according to the average number of new daily COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the seven days ending October 20. To estimate the incidence of COVID-19 at the metropolitan level, we aggregated data up from the county level using boundary definitions from the U.S. Census Bureau. Population data used to adjust case and death totals came from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2019 American Community Survey and are five-year estimates. Unemployment data is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and is not seasonally adjusted.

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

Rank in MSA	County	Population	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending October 20	New daily cases per 100,000, week ending October 13	Cumulative cases per 100,000	Cumulative deaths per 100,000
1	Jefferson County	18,890	27.2	42.4	13,467.4	N/A
2	Jackson County	13,266	25.2	25.7	14,593.7	N/A
3	Shawnee County	177,852	21.6	26.1	14,147.7	N/A
4	Wabaunsee County	6,889	21.3	8.3	12,948.2	N/A
5	Osage County	15,881	18.1	31.6	12,241.0	N/A

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