Located along the Georgia line, just north of Auburn University, Chambers County is home to fewer than 34,000 Alabamians, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That makes it the 34th most populous county in the state. And yet, as of Monday afternoon, this small county finds itself atop all the state’s grim measures of the coronavirus outbreak.

Chambers County as of late Monday had the secondmost reported deaths, behind only Jefferson County, which has 20 times the population. And Chambers County reports the sixth most confirmed cases of COVID-19 of any Alabama county, behind the state’s large urban centers.

Chambers had 96 confirmed coronavirus cases Monday - nearly 29 cases for every 10,000 people living there. That’s more than double the rate in any other county. And that’s only because Wilcox County, which has just 12 confirmed cases, has just over 10,000 people. The confirmed case rate in Wilcox is just under 12 per 10,000.

When only looking at large counties with substantial numbers of confirmed cases, then Chambers seems even further apart from the rest of the state. Shelby, Lee, Jefferson and Walker counties have larger populations and some of the highest rates of confirmed cases in the state. But each is about a quarter of the rate in Chambers.

So why is Chambers experiencing what appears to be the worst outbreak in the state? Many of the cases have been linked to church services in the county in recent weeks. Medical officials in Lee County, where Chambers patients have been treated, said so in a public statement.

Overall, the numbers of deaths in Alabama are relatively low, so rates per 10,000 are also low. Still, Chambers has by far the highest reported death rate due to coronavirus in Alabama. Its reported deaths per 10,000 people is 2.1. It’s the only county in Alabama with a death rate higher than one - the next closest is Marion County, in northwest Alabama. Marion had a reported death rate of 0.7 as of Monday.

A note here - these death rates are calculated based on each counties 2019 population according to the Census, not based on the number of people in each county confirmed to have the virus. Confirmed virus counts are likely lower than actual virus counts, and thus could lead to higher than actual mortality rates.

Chambers and Wilcox are the only Alabama counties with more than 10 confirmed cases per 10,000 people, but Greene County, in the Black Belt, is close. It’s the least populous county in the state, and one of the poorest. It had eight confirmed cases, and just over 8,000 total people, for a rate of 9.9 in 10,000.

Walker County, just northwest of Birmingham, was next, with 8.5 in 10,000 confirmed to have the virus. Tallapoosa, the western neighbor of Chambers, rounded out the top five - 7.7 in 10,000 there had confirmed cases.

Do you have an idea for a data story about Alabama? Email Ramsey Archibald at rarchibald@al.com, and follow him on Twitter @RamseyArchibald. Read more Alabama data stories here.

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