According to the Daily Yonder 138 rural counties representing 7 percent of the nation’s total, recorded 50 percent of incident cases of COVID-19.  These counties represented 61 percent of the 18,400 new cases over the period of review.  Almost 60 percent of the counties regarded as “hot spots” are located in seven states in the southeast and southern mid-Atlantic with North Carolina leading with 1,372 new cases during the third week of June.  It is significant that many of the hotspot counties have a large packing or poultry processing plant that monitors workers.