Rural new-infection rate breaks records for second week

New coronavirus infections, in ranges by county, Jan. 9-15
Map by The Daily Yonder; click the image to enlarge it or click here for the interactive version.

"The rapid spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 in rural America abated a bit last week, but for the second week in a row, rural counties broke the record for the largest number of new cases in a seven-day period," Tim Marema reports for The Daily Yonder. From Jan. 9-15, "new infections in rural America grew by 36 percent, with 534,000 new cases being reported. Two weeks ago new rural infections grew by nearly 110%. This week’s lower rate of increase may indicate that rural counties are starting to recover from the Omicron surge." New infections in metropolitan counties grew only 2% last week, with 4.3 million new cases reported.

Covid-related deaths in rural counties—a trailing indicator—fell by about 8% last week to 2,090. "Metropolitan counties, which began seeing higher new infection rates about six weeks ago, had a 20% increase in deaths, to just over 10,000 for the week," Marema reports.

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