Rural counties hit record high for new coronavirus infections last week; see the latest county-level data

Daily Yonder map shows rates of new coronavirus infections reported Sept. 20-26;
click the image to enlarge it or click here for the interactive version.

"The number of covid-19 cases reported in rural counties climbed by more than 61,000 last week, setting a record for new infections in a single week and placing half of all rural counties on the White House’s red-zone list," Tim Murphy and Tim Marema report for The Daily Yonder. "The number of new infections in rural America was 14 percent higher last week compared to the previous period, according to the Daily Yonder’s analysis. Since mid-September, the weekly number of new infections in rural counties has climbed by 48%. A record-breaking 990 of the nation’s 1,976 rural counties were on the red-zone list last week, meaning they had an infection rate of 100 or more new cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 in population."

Red zones are defined by the White House Coronavirus Task Force as places that have at least 1 new coronavirus infections per 1,000 people in one week. Click here for more data, graphs, and in-depth exploration of that data from the Yonder.