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Rural Counties' Share Of COVID-19 Cases Doubled In A Month, Analysis Finds

A Daily Yonder analysis finds that the percentage of new COVID-19 cases coming from rural counties more than doubled in the last month.
The Daily Yonder
A Daily Yonder analysis finds that the percentage of new COVID-19 cases coming from rural counties more than doubled in the last month.

Many big cities are seeing the number of COVID-19 cases fall, but rural counties are seeing the opposite, according to a new analysis by the Daily Yonder, a rural nonprofit news outlet.

 Click 'play' to hear the audio version of this story.

Daily Yonder editor Tim Marema, who co-authored the analysis, said they examined the number of cases in rural areas because they tend to have older populations with higher rates of pre-existing conditions.

"If it spreads in rural America, it could be a big problem for those residents because of their vulnerability," Marema said. "So then the question becomes, is it spreading?"

The analysis shows that the percentage of new cases coming from rural counties – those with fewer than 50,000 people – more than doubled from March 29 to on April 27. Small metro counties – under 250,000 people – saw a similar increase.

Still, nonmetropolitan counties, which represent about 15% of the nation's population, account for only about 10% of the nation's COVID-19 cases, the analysis found. Farming and mining counties generally have lower infection rates, Marema said, while towns with meat packing plants, prisons, vacation homes and manufacturing plants have seen higher numbers.

Find reporter Madelyn Beck on Twitter @MadelynBeck8

Copyright 2020 Boise State Public Radio

This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West in Montana, KUNC in Colorado, KUNM in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

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Copyright 2021 Boise State Public Radio News. To see more, visit Boise State Public Radio News.

I’m the Mountain West News Bureau reporter at Boise State Public Radio. That means I work with reporters and NPR stations around the region to cover Mountain West issues like public lands, influential court cases and the environment, among many other things.
Madelyn Beck is Boise State Public Radio's regional reporter with the Mountain West News Bureau. She's from Montana but has reported everywhere from North Dakota to Alaska to Washington, D.C. Her last few positions included covering energy resources in Wyoming and reporting on agriculture/rural life issues in Illinois.