Rural Areas Send Their Sickest Patients To The Cities, Straining Hospital Capacity

Registered nurse Pascaline Muhindura has spent the last eight months treating COVID-19 patients at Research Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri.

But when she returns home to her small town of Spring Hill, Kansas, she's often stunned by what she sees, like on a recent stop for carryout.

"No one in the entire restaurant was wearing a mask," Muhindura says. "And there's no social distancing. I had to get out, 'cause I almost had a panic attack. I was like 'What is going on with people? Why are we still doing this?'"

Many rural communities across the U.S. have resisted masks and calls for social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic, but now rural counties are experiencing record-high infection and death rates

Critically ill rural patients are often sent to city hospitals for high-level treatment, and as their numbers grow, some urban hospitals are buckling under the added strain.