SANTA FE, N.M. – As the coronavirus rages across the United States, mainly in large urban areas, more than a third of U.S.
counties have yet to report a single positive test result for COVID-19 infections, an analysis by The Associated Press shows.
Data compiled by John Hopkins University shows that 1,297 counties have no confirmed cases of COVID-19 out of 3,142 counties nationwide.
Of the counties without positive tests, 85% are in rural areas — from predominantly white communities in Appalachia and the Great Plains to majority Hispanic and Native American stretches of the American Southwest — that generally have less everyday contact between people that can help transmit the virus.