Rural coronavirus infection rate up for third straight week; two-thirds of rural counties now in the red zone

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

Last week marked the third consecutive week that new coronavirus infection rates rose in counties outside metropolitan areas. "Three-quarters of all rural counties were in the red zone last week, up from about two-thirds of all rural counties two weeks ago. The red zone is defined as having 100 or more new infections per 100,000 residents in a seven-day period," Tim Marema reports for The Daily Yonder. "The increase in new infections was more modest in metropolitan counties, but the metropolitan infection rate remained slightly higher than the rural infection rate."

Rural counties reported 98,293 new cases during the week of July 5-11, an increase of nearly 20 percent over the week before. Metro counties reported 720,721 new infections that week, up about 9% from the previous week, Marema reports. Rural counties reported 419 Covid-related deaths last week, up nearly 17% from the week before, while the 2,044 such deaths in metro counties, down nearly 3% from the week before. 

"The rural death rate of 0.91 per 100,000 residents was 26% higher than the metropolitan death rate of 0.71 per 100,000 residents. The rural death rate has been higher than the metropolitan rate every week except one for the last year," Marema reports. "The cumulative rate of deaths caused by Covid-19 is about a third higher in rural counties than in urban ones." Click here for more charts, regional analysis, and county-level interactive maps from the Yonder.