NATIONWIDE (SPECTRUM NEWS) — Rural health expert explains what coronavirus looks like in rural communities across the US.

Coronavirus is still present throughout communities across the US. That includes those rural communities which weren’t seeing the effects of this pandemic right off the bat.

“This is shifting from a very urban issue to a very rural issue,” Deputy Director of the University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center, Dr. Carrie Henning-Smith says.

She says more than 90 percent of all rural counties across the country have at least one COVID 19 case. And more than 40 percent of rural counties across the US have a death from COVID 19.

 

 

“Rural resident(s) have more underlying health conditions, higher rates of disabilities. These are risk factors that put people at greater risk for COVID and the most serve impacts of COVID,” Henning-Smith says.

Not to mention, most rural areas may not have access to nearby hospitals or the capacity to treat an outbreak.

“Rural hospitals are less likely to have ICU beds and ventilators available. They are more likely to have workforce shortages, so just maintain the capacity to treat COVID in a rural ares is especially tricky,” Henning-Smith says.

She says there are some rural communities that are more at risk than others. Having different facilities within their towns or villages plays a role in their risk factor.

“We are seeing a lot of hot spots pop up where there are prisons, meat packing plants or long term care facilities, or deep chronic poverty and structural racism,” Henning-Smith says.

She says those are all underlying factors of upticks in COVID 19 in rural communities across the US.