Coronavirus in Humboldt: How a small, rural county ended up with the second-most cases per capita in

Coronavirus in Humboldt: How a small, rural county ended up with the second-most cases per capita in Nevada


Humboldt County, for two days this week, held the distinction of having the most coronavirus cases per capita of any county in Nevada.

It started with one case on March 27. Then, two more the next day. Now, a week and a half later, there are 14 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the remote, rural county, home to fewer than 17,000 residents.

It’s still a fraction of the nearly 1,900 cases reported in populous Clark County, where roughly three-quarters of the state’s 3 million residents live. And Clark, which reported 144 new cases of the novel coronavirus Wednesday morning, once again leads the state in confirmed cases per capita, at 8.4 per 10,000 residents, with Humboldt a close second, at 8.3 per 10,000.

It makes some sense that Clark County, which is visited by 40 million people a year, would have a high number of cases per capita. More visitors means more possible exposure to the virus. But how did Humboldt, a sparsely populated county in the middle of the state, between Reno and Elko, get here? And what does it portend for potential case spikes in the rest of rural Nevada?

Read more: https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/coronavirus-in-humboldt-how-a-small-rural-county-ended-up-with-the-second-most-cases-per-capita-in-nevada