Cars pull up to the city’s mobile coronavirus testing site at Freeman Coliseum. Credit: Courtesy Photo / City of San Antonio

The San Antonio area is the U.S. metro with the third-fastest growth in COVID-19 cases, according to an analysis by global research firm Evercore ISI.

Phoenix topped the list, followed by Tampa, Florida. Austin ranked fifth, Houston eighth and the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex sixteenth. The research was shared this week via Twitter by Meg Tirrell, senior health and science reporter for CNBC.

According to Evercore’s tally, the San Antonio area had 7,936 cases. Under current diagnosis rates, the city could see that double in 11 days.

Evercore based its research on data from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and the U.S. Census Bureau.

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Sanford Nowlin is editor-in-chief of the San Antonio Current. He holds degrees from Trinity University and the University of Texas at San Antonio, and his work has been featured in Salon, Alternet, Creative...