More than a fifth of Americans live in counties with high Covid transmission rate

More than 20% of the US population lives in a county considered to have "high" Covid-19 transmission About 22% of the US population – nearly 73 million people – lives in a county considered to have “high” Covid-19 transmission, according to data published Monday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By <a href="/profiles/meg-wagner">Meg Wagner</a>, Melissa Macaya, <a href="/profiles/melissa-mahtani">Melissa Mahtani</a>, Mike Hayes and <a href="/profiles/veronica-rocha">Veronica Rocha</a>, CNN CNN

About 22% of the US population – nearly 73 million people – lives in a county considered to have “high” Covid-19 transmission, according to data published Monday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This is about 10 times what it was in early June, when less than 3% of the population lived in a county with “high” Covid-19 transmission.

The CDC considers a county to have “high” transmission if there have been 100 or more cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 residents or a test positivity rate of 10% or higher in the past seven days. 

The number of people living in a county with “low” community transmission has been cut in half since in early June.  ...