New rural Covid-19 deaths hit record for fifth straight week

New coronavirus infections, Nov. 29-Dec. 5.
Daily Yonder map; click the image to enlarge it or click here for the interactive version.

"The number of people from rural counties who died from Covid-19-related causes in a one-week period topped 3,000 for the first time last week, marking the fifth consecutive week of a record-setting number of fatalities," Tim Murphy and Tim Marema report for The Daily Yonder.

During the week of Nov. 29-Dec. 5, rural counties reported 3,613 Covid-related deaths, a 34 percent increase from the week before. New infections last week stayed just below the record set three weeks ago. The number of new infections nationwide last week was 211,960, a 7% increase from last week, Murphy and Marema report.

"Rural counties broke another record last week for the number of counties in the red zone, defined as 100 new cases per week per 100,000 residents," they report. "Ninety-four percent of rural counties (1,857 of 1,976) exceeded that threshold last week. The red-zone definition comes from the White House Coronavirus Task Force and indicates that localities have lost control of the spread of the virus."

Click here for more data and analysis from the Yonder, including an interactive map with the latest county-level data.