Rural Counties Report Faster Vaccination Pace for Fourth Consecutive Week
The pace of new vaccinations in rural America increased for the fourth consecutive week last week, a Daily Yonder analysis shows.
Rural counties reported that just over 318,000 rural Americans completed their vaccine regimen last week. That’s 9% higher than the number who were newly vaccinated two weeks ago in rural counties.
Newly completed vaccinations in metropolitan counties also increased by 9% last week.
Thirty-nine percent of the total rural population is completely vaccinated, up 0.7 percentage points from two weeks ago. In metro areas, 50.6% of the population is fully vaccinated.
The pace of newly completed vaccinations was the highest it's been since the first week of July. The number of new vaccinations fell throughout most of June and July in rural counties. In August, after a major resurgence in Covid-19 infections and hospitalizations, the trend reversed. The number of newly completed vaccinations has increased for four out of the last five weeks.
This week’s Daily Yonder vaccination analysis covers Friday, August 27, through Thursday, September 2. Data comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state departments of health for Hawaii, Massachusetts, and Texas.