HANCOCK COUNTY, Ga. — One in 98 people in Hancock County, Georgia have died of COVID-19, painting a stark picture of the virus’ toll on Georgia’s rural counties.
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Hancock County is near Milledgeville and has a population of around 8,100. There have been 93 new cases of the virus in the last two weeks. A total of 79 people have died of the virus in the county since the pandemic began, the youngest of whom was 32 years old.
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Hancock is one of 15 rural Georgia counties in which more than 1 in 150 people have died of the virus since the start of the pandemic. By comparison, in Georgia’s urban centers like Atlanta and Savannah, that number averages to more like 1 in 500.
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Here are the 10 counties with the highest death rates:
- Hancock County: 1 in 98
- Candler County: 1 in 119
- Treutlen County: 1 in 125
- Towns County: 1 in 129
- Glascock County: 1 in 129
- Twiggs County: 1 in 129
- Upson County: 1 in 130
- Jenkins County: 1 in 136
- Ware County: 1 in 142
- Wilcox County: 1 in 142
Vaccination rates in many of those counties are far lower than in Atlanta’s urban areas. Thirty-five Georgia counties, only one of which is not designated as “rural,” have vaccination rates of 40% or lower. The five counties with vaccination rates below 30% are all designated as rural.
Low vaccination rates are only part of what accounts for higher death rates from COVID-19 among any given population. Other contributing factors include access to health care, comorbidities and age.
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