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Data: CSSE Johns Hopkins University, National Center of Health Statistics, U.S. Census Bureau; Chart: Andrew Witherspoon/Axios

This wave of coronavirus infections is hitting rural areas especially hard. While big cities have more total cases, rural areas are seeing more cases per capita — and they're at greater risk of running out of hospital capacity as cases pile up.

Why it matters: What started as an urban problem in the spring is now everyone's problem.

Between the lines: Rural communities in the U.S. have more vulnerable health care systems and more vulnerable populations. Many are on the verge of becoming overwhelmed by coronavirus patients as caseloads continue to grow.

  • Coronavirus patients are occupying the highest portions of hospital beds in Midwestern and Mountain West states. And hospitalizations tend to trail cases by a few weeks, meaning the burden on hospitals is only likely to get worse.
  • As the outbreak also continues to grow in big cities, rural systems may end up with nowhere to send patients after they run out of room to treat them.
  • Health care workers are less likely to be able to temporarily relocate to hotspots, as they'll be needed in their own communities.

Zoom in: Childress County, Texas, has the highest per capita case rate in the country, with 91 cases per day in a county of just over 7,200 people — or 1,265.3 cases per 100,000 people.

The bottom line: "We have legitimate reason to be very, very concerned about our health system at a national level," Lauren Sauer, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Johns Hopkins University, told NPR.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.