Infection and death rates increased nationwide last week after a decline the previous week. Increases in both infections and deaths were similar among urban and rural counties.
Infections
Infection rates climbed by 7.3% in rural counties last week, where the rate of new infections was 79.6 cases per 100,000 residents. In almost 30% of rural counties, infection rates were over 100 cases per 100,000, compared to 25% of urban counties. New infections in rural America totaled 36,646 last week.
In urban counties, the infection rate was 90.9 new cases per 100,000 residents, almost 15% higher than the rural infection rate. There were 256,418 new cases in metropolitan areas last week, a 7.7% increase from two weeks ago.
The actual rate of infections is likely much higher because the CDC does not report on the infections detected through home tests.
Deaths
Deaths in rural areas increased by 17.4% last week, where the weekly rate of deaths was 0.95 Covid-19 deaths per 100,000 residents. Rural counties reported a total of 439 deaths last week.
Urban deaths climbed by a similar margin. Metropolitan counties reported 2,108 deaths last week, a 18.1% increase from the previous week. The urban death rate was 0.75 deaths per 100,000 residents.
Cumulatively, the rural death rate amounted to 407.7 deaths per 100,000 residents last week, 37% higher than the cumulative urban rate of 297.5 deaths.
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