https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/497975-covid-19-now-spreading-fastest-in-small-rural-counties?fbclid=IwAR06LDl9AcJWtpP2ZYmkuvQdMT8TOlTjV2jzpGNSIA1PTGHd48pRupIfRUs&fbclid=IwAR1SznSl_lCvzJDY75cA3wW-7UvwWUAEjvJO5Av9jjCtiC7ZkLFxKuS1mfI
No surprise.
By Reid Wilson - 05/15/20 11:40 AM EDT
The coronavirus pandemic is spreading out from urban centers and increasingly infecting residents in small rural counties, even as some of those areas begin to loosen lockdown requirements aimed at stopping its spread.
A new analysis shows nearly three-quarters of Americans live in counties where the virus is now spreading widely. Another 200 counties have seen significant growth in infection trends in the last week, making them high-prevalence counties — areas where the virus has infected at least one in a thousand people.
Like ripples in a pond, the virus is radiating out from its epicenters in large cities.
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Epidemiologists say the pattern is similar to what they would expect to see during a typical flu season, when a virus lands first in a densely populated area before radiating out to neighboring regions.
“The first wave is in big cities and it travels outwards from there. Isolated rural areas are hit later. This pattern is largely based on the connectivity of populations through human movement,” said Nita Bharti, a biologist at Penn State University's Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics.
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