Rural residents are currently dying from Covid-19 at twice the rate of metropolitan residents, according to a Daily Yonder analysis.
And the rate of new infections in rural counties is 50 percent higher than the metropolitan rate.
This stark divergence between rural and urban areas comes as the summer surge appears to be abating. (See the report on Covid-19 in rural America last week.)
Throughout most of the pandemic, the rural death rate has been equal to or slightly higher than the metropolitan death rate. (See graph above.) The parallel tracks began to diverge in early August. Since then, the weekly death rate in rural areas has grown six-fold. During the same period, the metropolitan weekly death rate increased three-fold.
Last week, the rural death rate was 4.8 per 100,000 in population, 109% higher than the metropolitan rate of 2.3 per 100,000.
There’s a similar story in rural infections. The week of August 7, the rural and metropolitan weekly infection rates were roughly equal. (See graph below.) Since August 7, the metropolitan rate climbed about 40 percent to its peak two weeks ago. Meanwhile, the rural infection rate grew 80 percent before peaking last week.
The most recent infection rates are 432 per 100,000 population for nonmetropolitan (rural) counties, and 293 per 100,000 for metropolitan counties.
Read more at healthnews.org
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