New rural coronavirus infection rate up slightly after seven weeks of decline, but new cases still at lowest rate in a year

New coronavirus infections, in ranges by county, June 6-12
Daily Yonder map; click the image to enlarge it or click here for the interactive version

New rural coronavirus infections during the week of June 6-12 were slightly higher than the week before, the first such increase after seven straight weeks of declining numbers. "The number of new rural infections grew by about 6 percent last week, to 16,741," Tim Marema and Tim Murphy report for The Daily Yonder. Despite the increase, new cases remained at their lowest rate in a year. New infections are down by more than 90% in rural America since the peak of the winter surge in January." New rural deaths fell from 538 two weeks ago to 524 last week, a roughly 3% decline.

Comparatively, new infections in metropolitan counties "fell for the ninth consecutive week, dropping by 11% to 72,071," Murphy and Marema report. "Covid-related deaths in metropolitan counties fell by 16%, from 2,478 two weeks ago to 2,058 last week."

Click here for charts, regional analysis, and an interactive county-level map from the Yonder.