In rural counties, Covid-19 infections fall, but deaths rise

New coronavirus infections, in ranges by county, Sept. 19-25
Daily Yonder map; click the image to enlarge it or click here for the interactive version.

Rural coronavirus infections fell during the week of Sept. 19-25, but Covid-19 deaths rose.

"New infections fell by 14% last week in rural (nonmetropolitan) counties, from about 210,000 new cases two weeks ago to 181,000 new cases last week. It was the biggest single-week drop in the number of new cases since winter," Tim Murphy and Tim Marema report for The Daily Yonder. "Covid-related deaths increased by 10% last week, to 3,197. That’s the largest number of deaths in nonmetropolitan counties since early February. Deaths are a trailing indicator of Covid-19 and could continue to rise for weeks. This winter, the rural death rate did not begin to fall substantially until about a month after new infections began to wane."

Nearly two-thirds of rural counties had fewer new infections last week than two weeks ago, but 94% remain in the red zone, meaning they had at least 100 new infections per 100,000 residents last week. Click here for an interactive county-level map, regional analysis and charts from the Yonder.