# Effects on rural areas? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [March 20, 2020, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/effects-on-rural-areas/849863 "2020-03-20T03:23:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/effects-on-rural-areas/849863/1 "2020-03-20T03:23:27Z")
So with the California lockdown, I got to wondering: is it business as usual in rural areas? Are they having to change their lifestyles in any significant way? How relevant is this whole thing to them, compared to urban and suburban areas (like, could they spare equipment and doctors???)? Facts about anywhere is fine, though I’m mostly curious about the United States, since I live there and there’s a stereotype of them being conservative. ---
**Author:** ![skdo23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@skdo23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skdo23)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/effects-on-rural-areas/849863/2 "2020-03-20T03:40:16Z")
In Vermont, which is mostly rural with a few small cities, schools are closed, restaurants are takeout/delivery only, gatherings of \>50 people are banned among other things. Many businesses have also shut down voluntarily. Paper products are hard to find and grocery stores are having trouble keeping their shelves stocked in general. The mental health agency where I receive treatment is only conducting appointments by phone. Currently there are 18 confirmed cases of Coronavirus statewide out of a population of roughly 500k, only a few of which are currently hospitalized but medical facilities are bracing for the worst and probably don’t view themselves as having personnel and supplies to spare. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/effects-on-rural-areas/849863/3 "2020-03-20T04:13:19Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > How relevant is this whole thing to them, compared to urban and suburban areas (like, could they spare equipment and doctors???)? It’s my understanding that rural areas typically have few doctors and little equipment, much less spare equipment. [An article on one such hospital](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/well-improvise-a-resource-starved-rural-hospital-steels-itself-for-coronaviruss-arrival/2020/03/14/a724d1ac-6604-11ea-acca-80c22bbee96f_story.html). > [@](#): > > The virus had just arrived in rural America, but already, small hospitals across the country had begun bumping up against the limitations of their resources. A facility in the Berkshires had lost much of its nursing staff to a 14-day quarantine. A critical access hospital in North Texas had only one face shield in storage and couldn’t acquire any others. A hospital in Wisconsin was borrowing sterilized medical gowns from local dentists. And throughout the hard-hit areas of Washington state, rural hospitals with only a handful of beds had begun making plans to set up tents or rent vacant buildings in case extra space was needed. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/effects-on-rural-areas/849863/4 "2020-03-20T04:17:45Z")
I’m given to understand the tiny Hospital that’s closest to where I live has 4 ventilators. I assume they are very old. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/effects-on-rural-areas/849863/5 "2020-03-20T04:35:48Z")
> [@skdo23](#): > > In Vermont, which is mostly rural with a few small cities, schools are closed, restaurants are takeout/delivery only, gatherings of \>50 people are banned among other things. Many businesses have also shut down voluntarily. Paper products are hard to find and grocery stores are having trouble keeping their shelves stocked in general. The mental health agency where I receive treatment is only conducting appointments by phone. Currently there are 18 confirmed cases of Coronavirus statewide out of a population of roughly 500k, only a few of which are currently hospitalized but medical facilities are bracing for the worst and probably don’t view themselves as having personnel and supplies to spare. Pretty much this. In my quite rural county in upstate New York, meetings of just about any type have been cancelled, services are mostly only whatever can be done via phone or internet, food and wine etc. is takeout only, gatherings over 50 are banned statewide which closes down all local festivals, sports both school and otherwise, school plays etc. plus the schools are all closed anyway, libraries are closed (!), winery tasting rooms are closed (major here), social programs of all sorts are shut down or operating only over the phone, people are improvising ways to get meals to schoolchildren who need them and to elderly/ill who can’t get out, and I don’t know what’s in the grocery or which stores are still open because I haven’t been to town for a week and things are changing day to day. From what I hear there are a lot of shortages in the stores by now, though. No, it is nowhere remotely near business as usual. And yeah, for a lot of medical stuff people here need to go to the city in the best of times. We don’t have hordes of capacity just lying around unused.