Rural Research Notes
Shawn Poynter / There Is More Work To Be Done
Shawn Poynter / There Is More Work To Be Done
Rural America Now Has More Than 5 Million Reported Cases and Over 100,000 Deaths from Covid-19
COVID-19 in Rural America – September 1, 2021
As of August 31, there have been more than 5.6 million reported cases of COVID-19, and approximately 101,741 associated deaths in communities outside metropolitan areas. Between August 1 and August 31, communities outside of metropolitan areas reported nearly 700,000 new cases of COVID-19 – a 291 percent increase over the previous 30-day period. There were 5,122 reported deaths associated with COVID-19 in rural communities in August, which represented a 254 percent increase in deaths from July 2021. Communities outside of metropolitan areas accounted for over 19 percent of all COVID deaths and 16 percent of new cases in August. The dramatic increase in rural cases and deaths mimics national trends related to the ascendancy of the more contagious delta variant.
