New rural coronavirus vaccinations fall for third week in row

Vaccination rates as of Nov. 4, compared to national average and adjusted to account for vaccinations not assigned to specific counties. Map by The Daily Yonder; click the image to enlarge it or click here for the interactive version.

The number of new coronavirus vaccinations in rural counties fell for the third week in a row Oct. 29 through Nov. 4, marking the lowest pace for the shots since mid-August, The Daily Yonder reports. 

"Newly completed vaccinations fell by about 20% last week compared to two weeks ago. Rural (nonmetropolitan) counties reported 166,000 newly completed vaccinations the week of Friday, Oct. 29, through Thursday, Nov. 4. That’s down from about 207,000 two weeks ago," Tim Murphy and Tim Marema report. "Meanwhile, the number of newly completed vaccinations in metropolitan counties grew by more than 15% last week compared to two weeks ago. Metropolitan counties reported 1.6 million newly completed Covid-19 vaccinations last week, compared to 1.4 million two weeks ago."

Last week's shots increased the rural vaccination rate by 0.4 percentage points, to 44.5% of the population, and raised the metro vaccination rate by 0.6 percentage points to 56.6%—a 12.1 percentage point gap that is increasing, Murphy and Marema report.

Click here for more charts, maps and regional analysis from the Yonder, including an interactive map.