Rural Covid-19 deaths hit a four-month peak last week

"Rural Covid-19 death rates climbed by 90% during the week of January 5th, reaching a rate rural America hasn’t seen since last September," reports Sarah Melotte of The Daily Yonder. "Rural counties reported 803 deaths last week, 382 more [than] the previous week. The rural rate of deaths was 1.74 per 100,000 residents. . . . In metropolitan areas, there were 3,087 Covid-19 deaths last week, a 38% increase from the previous week. The urban rate of deaths was 1.09 deaths per 100,000 residents."

Since the start of the pandemic, the rural death rate is 415 deaths per 100,000, "while the cumulative urban death rate was 303 deaths per 100,000," Melotte reports. "The cumulative rate of deaths is still 37% higher in rural counties than metropolitan counties, but the disparity between rural and urban deaths has not widened since April of 2022."