USDA: rural residents appear more vulnerable to Covid-19

Three-week moving average of new Covid-19 deaths per 100,000 adults aged 20 and up.
USDA chart; click the image to enlarge it.

Rural residents appears to be more likely to die from Covid-19 or come down with a serious case of it in 2020, according to data reported in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural America at a Glance: 2020 Edition report.

Though the virus didn't begin to spread widely in rural areas until last summer, in September rural Covid-19 death and infection rates have consistently surpassed those in urban areas. Rural populations appear more vulnerable to the virus in several ways. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the top two characteristics of people highly vulnerable to Covid-19 are older age and the presence of underlying medical conditions. People may also be more vulnerable if they have difficulty accessing medical care, either because they lack health insurance or live more than 32 miles from a county with an intensive care hospital. Rural residents score worse on those metrics across the board: the rural population is, on average, older, sicker, and has a harder time accessing health care.