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In Rural Areas Spared By COVID-19, Lockdowns Create Political Divide

The COVID–19 pandemic is hitting some places in the nation hard while sparing others, including many rural areas in the West like Sandpoint, Idaho.

The city has had only a handful of confirmed cases, but the community has been on lockdown for more than a month. All this is transforming a public health crisis into a hot-button political issue in an already deeply divided town.

The Mountain West News Bureau’s Nate Hegyi (@natehegyi) reports. This story is part of the America Amplified: Election 2020 initiative.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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