For the second week in a row, the rates of COVID-19 infections in rural and urban areas are trending in opposite directions. According to the Daily Yonder, “The proportion of new cases generated in rural counties continued to increase as the number of new cases in metropolitan counties fell for the sixth straight week.” This disturbing trend is placing a strain on patients and providers in rural areas, and as Alan Morgan, NRHA CEO, noted in May 2020, “Unfortunately, we are now entering a phase where rural America is going to be front and center of these discussions as we go forward. The challenge is: we are moving into an area where those most in need of health care services and those that are most at risk of COVID-19 are going to be in these small towns where they have limited access to health care.”
