One-third of rural counties in 'red zone' for covid-19 cases, according to White House task force; see county-level data

New covid-19 cases from July 11-18. Daily Yonder map; click image to enlarge it or click here for interactive version.

"A third of all rural counties are in a 'red zone' for covid-19 cases, according to a definition devised by the White House Coronavirus Task Force," Bill Bishop reports for The Daily Yonder. "In a document prepared for the White House group, 'red zones' were defined as places that had 100 or more covid-19 cases per 100,000 people in the last week. The document was dated July 14 and found that 18 states met that definition."

The task force's state-level map jibes with the Yonder map, which shows new case rates for all U.S. counties from July 11-18, calculated using data from USA Facts.

Bishop notes that "urban America was in worse shape" over the past week, and that a higher proportion of urban counties were in the red zone this week: "Just over 41 percent of urban counties were in the 'red zone' compared to 32.2% of rural counties. Also, 12% of rural counties reported no new cases in the week we studied. Only 1.6% of urban counties reported zero cases during this week."