Two weeks ago, new rural coronavirus vaccinations fell for fifth week in row; new rural infections went up; deaths fell

Vaccination rates as of Nov. 18, 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.

Two weeks ago, the pace of new rural coronavirus vaccinations declined for the fifth consecutive week as rural coronavirus infections rose slightly and Covid-related deaths declined.

Rural counties reported 144,000 newly completed vaccinations Nov. 12-18, a 9 percent drop from the week before. "Newly completed vaccinations in metropolitan counties declined even more sharply, dropping by more than 25% to about 890,000 new vaccinations," Tim Murphy and Tim Marema report for The Daily Yonder. "It was the first time newly completed vaccinations in metro counties fell under 1 million residents since the widespread rollout of Covid-19 vaccinations began this spring. The rural vaccination rate grew by 0.3 percentage points last week. That brings the rural rate to 45.2%, or about 20.7 million of rural America’s 46 million residents. The metropolitan vaccination rate of 57.3% is 12.2 percentage points higher than the rural rate."

Meanwhile, new infections increased by about 6% and Covid-related deaths fell by about 9% Nov. 14-20, Murphy and Marema report. While the infection and death rate gaps narrowed slightly between rural and urban counties that week, the rural infection rate remained 50% higher than the metro rate, and the rural Covid-related death rate remained twice as high as the metro rate for the fifth week in a row.

New coronavirus infections, in ranges by county, Nov. 14-20
Map by The Daily Yonder; click the image to enlarge it or click here for the interactive version.