New rural virus cases jumped 10% last week; bigger jump in deaths may be due to cause-of-death reclassifications

Rates of new coronavirus infections, April 4-10
Daily Yonder map; click the image to enlarge it or click here for the interactive version

New coronavirus infections in rural counties April 4-10 totaled 49,690, a 10 percent increase from the week before and the third consecutive week that new infections have increased. New infections in metropolitan counties rose 6%, to about 425,000.

"A sharp increase in Covid-related deaths in rural America last week could be related to reclassification of cause of death" by states, Tim Murphy and Tim Marema report for The Daily Yonder. "Covid-related deaths climbed from 835 two weeks ago to 1,502 last week, an increase of nearly 80%," In urban counties, new deaths climbed by 29% to 5,807."

Rural areas of Michigan and the Texas Panhandle had particularly high rates last week. Click here for more data and regional analysis from the Yonder, including charts and an interactive map with county-level data.