As death rates climb in rural NC, COVID-19 has shown up ‘with a vengeance’

Ames Alexander – The Charlotte Observer
Sep 16, 2020

Forty minutes to the east of uptown Charlotte, in rural Stanly County, you might think that COVID-19 poses relatively little threat.

You’d be wrong.

In fact, the death rate from the coronavirus is almost three times higher in Stanly than in the much more densely populated county of Mecklenburg.

What’s happening in Stanly County illustrates a broader problem: In North Carolina’s rural counties, people are dying from COVID-19 in greater overall numbers — and at higher rates — than in the state’s urban and suburban counties.

A recent study by the UNC Highway Safety Research Center came to that conclusion. So did a Charlotte Observer analysis, which looked at more up-to-date COVID-19 data.

Read the complete article from The Greensboro News & Record

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