Last week, rural America reported less than a one percent change in infection rates compared to two weeks ago. But rural death rates increased by more than 20%.
Deaths
Rural counties reported 525 deaths two weeks ago, a 21.8% increase from the previous week. Ninety-one more deaths were reported in rural America last week compared to two weeks ago. Eighteen percent of the Covid-19 deaths occurred in rural areas, despite only comprising 14% of the total U.S. population.
In metropolitan counties, Covid-19 deaths totaled 1,915, a 29.7% drop compared to the previous week. Urban America reported 808 fewer deaths last week compared to the week of October 19th. The weekly death rate was .68 deaths per 100,000 residents.
The rural death rate was 1.14 deaths per 100,000 residents, 67% higher than the urban death rate of .68 deaths per 100,000.
Last week, rural America reported a cumulative death rate of 404.94 deaths per 100,000 residents. Urban counties reported a 295.51 cumulative death rate.
Infections
Rural America reported 37,900 new Covid-19 infections last week, a .27% drop from two weeks ago. The rural rate was 82.28 new infections per 100,000 residents. Twenty-eight percent of nonmetropolitan counties had an infection rate of more than 100 infections per 100,000 residents, a 1% increase from the previous week.
Urban America reported a 3.18% infection rate increase last week, a total of 226,018 new infections. The infection rate was 80.1 per 100,000 residents. Twenty-five percent of urban counties reported an infection rate greater than 100 infections per 100,000 residents.
The infection rate is likely much higher because the CDC does not report infections detected through home testing.
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