MONROE, La. – After adding over 48,000 new cases on Mar. 1, the U.S. now has more than 28,200,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19. There have been more than 490,000 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 22.6 daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 Americans — essentially unchanged from the week prior, when there were an average of 21.2 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 different neighborhoods and a large population may be particularly at-risk.
In the 50 largest metro areas, the incidence of coronavirus grew at an average rate of 23.4 new cases a day per 100,000 residents in the past week — 5.2% greater than the case growth in all counties outside of metro areas.
The Monroe, LA, metro area consists of Ouachita Parish, Morehouse Parish, and Union Parish. In the past week, there were an average of 8.3 new coronavirus cases every day per 100,000 Monroe 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 were an average of 20.2 daily new cases per 100,000 Monroe residents.
The spread of coronavirus depends on a variety of factors and can vary even between neighboring parishes. Within the Monroe metro area, COVID-19 is growing the slowest in Union Parish. There were an average of 6.7 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in Union Parish during the past week, the least of the three parishes in Monroe with available data.
Case growth in the Monroe metro area varies at the parish level. In Morehouse Parish, for example, there were an average of 11.9 new cases per day per 100,000 residents in the past week — the most of any parish in Monroe and more than the case growth rate in Union Parish.
Just as Union Parish has the slowest case growth in the Monroe area, it also has the lowest incidence of cases overall. As of Mar. 1, there were a total of 10,224.7 confirmed cases per 100,000 residents in Union Parish, the fewest of the three parishes in the metro area. For comparison, the U.S. has so far reported 8,755.9 cases per 100,000 Americans nationwide.
In order to slow the spread of COVID-19, city and parish governments have ordered the closure of thousands of consumer-facing businesses. These measures have led to widespread job loss and record unemployment. In Union Parish, unemployment peaked at 9.9% in May 2020. As of December 2020, the parish’s unemployment rate was 5.6%.
To determine the parish in every metropolitan area where COVID-19 is growing the slowest, 24/7 Wall St. compiled and reviewed data from state and local health departments. We ranked parishes according to the average number of new daily COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the seven days ending Mar. 1. To estimate the incidence of COVID-19 at the metropolitan level, we aggregated data from the parish 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 2018 American Community Survey and are five-year estimates. Unemployment data is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and is not seasonally adjusted.
