White House refocusing efforts to raise rural coronavirus vaccination rates; see latest rural infection and death rates

Percent of rural population completely vaccinated
Daily Yonder map; click the image to enlarge it or click here for the interactive version

The federal government will put more focus on rural communities "in an effort to get more Americans vaccinated by July 4, the White House announced Tuesday," Liz Carey reports for The Daily Yonder. "The announcement says the Biden administration is raising the goal for vaccinations to get at least one shot into the arms of 70 percent of American adults, and for 160 million U.S. adults to be fully vaccinated by July 4." About 95 million of Americans 18 and up, or 45%, were fully vaccinated as of May 1; metropolitan counties have a 29.7% vaccination rate, compared to 26% in other counties.

"To raise the rural vaccination rate, the administration will send vaccines directly to rural health clinics in underserved communities and provide $100 million in American Rescue Plan funding for 4,600 rural health clinics to use for vaccine outreach in rural communities," Carey reports. "Additionally, the Health Resources and Services Administration will provide rural health clinics and rural hospitals with $860 million to broaden Covid-19 mitigation efforts. The funding amounts to about $100,000 for each of the rural health clinics and $230,000 for each of the 1,730 rural hospitals.

The administration also plans to direct pharmacies to begin offering walk-in vaccinations, and tell he Federal Emergency Management Agency to work with local leaders to vaccinate the hardest-to-reach individuals with more mobile clinics, pop-up clinics, and smaller community vaccination sites, depending on local needs. "The president announced nearly $250 million in two funding opportunities for community-based organizations to ramp up personal outreach by hiring community outreach workers, community health workers, social-support specialists, and others," Carey reports.

New rural coronavirus infections fell by 5% last week from the week before, but metropolitan counties  dropped 15%. See the Yonder for the latest rural coronavirus infection and death rates, including an interactive, county-level map and regional analysis.