This map shows vaccination rates across the country. Green localities are the most vaccinated. Red and pink are the least. Courtesy of The Daily Yonder.

The gap between rural residents who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 and metro residents has narrowed slightly for the second week in a row, according to an analysis by The Daily Yonder, a website that covers rural issues. However, in Virginia, the gap between the state’s most vaccinated communities and its least vaccinated widened slightly.

On Oct. 11, Virginia’s least-vaccinated locality was Carroll County, where 39.2% of the population had received at least one dose of vaccine. Its most vaccinated was Albemarle County, where the figure was 72.8% — a gap of 33.6%. As of October 26, Carroll remains the least-vaccinated, with a one-dose rate of 39.6% and Northampton County on the Eastern Shore has supplanted Albemarle as the most-vaccinated, with a rate of 73.6% — a gap of 34%. The gap between the most vaccinated locality and the five least vaccinated localities also widened slightly.

The Daily Yonder analysis (and map above) goes through October 21. The Virginia Department of Health COVID-19 dashboard is updated daily so there’s some discrepancy between the two reporting dates but directionally both are the same. You can also view infection rates on a locality-by-locality basis on the VDH site. Generally speaking, the least-vaccinated localities are in Southwest and Southside Virginia. So are the highest infection rates.

As of October 26, these are the five least vaccinated localities in the state, as measured on a percentage of the total population:

  1. Carroll County, 39.6% with at least one dose, 35.9% fully vaccinated.
  2. Lee County, 40.3% with at least one dose, 35.6% fully vaccinated.
  3. Patrick County, 40.6% with at least one dose, 37.1% fully vaccinated.
  4. Prince George County, 42.9% with at least one dose, 38.3% fully vaccinated.
  5. Craig County, 42.8% with at least one dose, 39.6% fully vaccinated.

These are the five most vaccinated localities:

  1. Northampton County, 73.6% with at least one dose, 68.6% fully vaccinated.
  2. Albemarle County, 73.2% with at least one dose, 68.1% fully vaccinated.
  3. Fairfax (city), 72.6% with at least one dose, 68% fully vaccinated.
  4. Fairfax County, 70.2% with at least one dose, 64.3% fully vaccinated.
  5. Arlington County, 69.1% with at least one dose, 62.7% fully vaccinated.