5 South Texas Communities Have the Country's Highest New Infection Rates
KILLEEN, Texas — The five metropolitan areas in the United States that now have the highest rate of new coronavirus cases relative to their population are all in South Texas, according to data compiled by The New York Times.
The communities all lie along the border with Mexico or on the Gulf Coast: Brownsville-Harlingen, Eagle Pass, Rio Grande City, Corpus Christi and Laredo.
Their numbers underscore the virulence of the virus in Texas, where officials have struggled to both keep the state open and curb infection. More than 300 deaths were announced on Wednesday in the state, which is approaching a total death toll of 10,000.
Representative Filemon B. Vela Jr., a Democrat whose district includes Brownsville and Harlingen, said that in late June he did not know anyone who had the virus. Now, he said, he knows hundreds. “In one day, I had four people who I knew die,” Mr. Vela said. “It’s just a really bad situation.”
Four of the five metro areas with the worst death rates in the country over the last two weeks were also in the South Texas border region — Rio Grande City, Brownsville-Harlingen, McAllen and Eagle Pass. The fifth was Payson, Ariz. In Rio Grande City in rural Starr County, which has only one overwhelmed hospital, the death rate was the highest, at 0.68 per 1,000 people.
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