WASHINGTON — Rural counties across America have some of the lowest vaccination rates in the country among residents aged 65 and older — and that is where the omicron variant is heading next.
While the initial surge of omicron cases and hospitalizations emerged in major cities, experts fear the next phase will come to areas of the country that are least prepared for it: where communities are disproportionately at risk of severe illness and death, and where hospitals are least equipped to handle it.
In North Carolina, a statistical modeling team named COVSIM — made up of scientists from UNC-Chapel Hill, N.C. State University and Georgia Tech — projected on Wednesday a sharp spike in coronavirus hospitalizations through the first two weeks of February, with rural counties experiencing between a four-fold and six-fold increase in hospitalizations beginning at the end of January.
