New rural coronavirus infection rate still 30% higher than metro rate; death rate still twice as high as metros'

New coronavirus infections, in ranges by county, Dec. 5-11
Map by The Daily Yonder; click the image to enlarge it or click here for the interactive version.

Nonmetropolitan counties reported about 146,000 new coronavirus infections during the week of Dec. 5-11, a decline of about 1 percent from the previous week. The new rural infection rate remains about 30% higher than the metro rate, and has been significantly higher than the metro rate since mid-August when Delta variant cases began surging, Tim Marema reports for The Daily Yonder.

Meanwhile, rural counties reported 2,253 Covid-related deaths last week, 53 fewer than the week before. "Since the start of the pandemic, 139,000 rural Americans have died from Covid-19. In the second half of 2021, the rural death rate from Covid-19 has been, on average, two times higher than the urban death rate," Marema reports. "In metropolitan counties, new infections increased by 6% and deaths increased by nearly 4%."

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