GREENWOOD, Ind.–Coronavirus doesn’t just affect places with a denser population like larger cities. Even if fewer people are diagnosed with the virus in those areas, the needs are sometimes the same, and different enough to require different kinds of attention from government.
“Growth in the number of new infections is concentrated in major metro areas. But, you’ve got unique challenges in rural areas, as well,” said Rep. Trey Hollingsworth, who represents an area of Indiana from Johnson County down to Louisville and over to the Cincinnati metro, covering a large rural area.
“They need access to health care at the same time and that’s been challenged for many years as our rural hospitals have closed,” he said. “They may have to drive further to stores than those in the metro areas and since stores have closed they’ve got to go even further for those things.”
Hollingsworth, talking to IndyPolitics, said since they rely on supplies that come into rural areas, some people may be suffering a bit because the supplies are sometimes going to metro areas first.
He said people who operate small businesses in rural areas are having a tougher time because of inherent lower demand.
“The small businesses in those communities are reliant just like everybody else on demand and they’ve seen that demand dry up, go away in the past several weeks.”
Hollingsworth said he believes government should be doing its best to reach out to every Hoosier, no matter the location.
“We will get through this as we have gotten through our darkest hours before,” he said.
