New US Coronavirus Hotspots Appear In Republican Heartland Areas
Source: The Guardian
New coronavirus hotspots are emerging in Republican heartland communities across multiple states, contradicting Donald Trump’s claims that infection rates are declining across the nation.
At a fraught press briefing on Monday, the president declared: “All throughout the country, the numbers are coming down rapidly.” Yet county-specific figures show a surge in infection rates in towns and rural communities in red states such as Texas, Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky and North and South Dakota, according to data tracking by the New York Times.
Trump’s claim is also contradicted by data used by the White House’s own pandemic taskforce to track new and emerging hotspots. In a 7 May report, obtained by NBC News, the list of top 10 surge areas included Nashville, Tennessee; Des Moines, Iowa; Amarillo, Texas; Racine, Wisconsin; Garden City, Kansas, and Central City, Kentucky – a predominantly white town of 6,000 people which saw a 650% week-on-week increase.
Muhlenberg county, where Central City is located, has voted Republican in every presidential election since 2004, with Trump winning 72% of votes in 2016 – the biggest ever victory for the party. The geographical spread of new hotspots suggest that the virus is advancing quickly outside major coastal towns and cities such as New York, Newark and Seattle where infection rates are now plateauing or dipping.
Read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/13/new-us-coronavirus-hotspots-republican-heartland-areas
Many of the new hotspots appearing in rural and urban areas are in states with governors who refused to issue stay-at-home orders, or are following Trump’s advice to ease lockdown restrictions against public health warnings about the dangers of doing so too soon.
