Rural Southerners Take On the Coronavirus

Read: Georgia’s experiment in human sacrifice.

And if there were a flood of coronavirus cases, rural areas like Sumter would have to worry about what happens if nurses and doctors get sick. Major metro areas have a lot of health-care workers, so it’s easier to replace people who fall ill. But in rural areas, many health-care providers don’t have that kind of backup.

On April 16, Sumter officials arranged for the University of Alabama to provide testing at Jaycee Park in the city. More than 100 people showed up to get tested, but not all of them showed severe-enough symptoms. When I spoke with Campbell that morning, he was worried people might be turned away from the site. “They’re screening on-site, but the deterring factor … is that if someone has been standing in line since 7 o’clock but they do not show any symptoms, they won’t get tested,” he told me. Ultimately, they tested only 27 of the 69 people who were screened for symptoms that day.

On Saturday, April 18, Campbell’s cousins came home to Sumter County to be laid to rest. Moss, 67, was buried first. Immediate family members gathered at Fourth Creek Baptist Church Cemetery, in York, where Moss had served as a deacon, for a graveside funeral service. Relatives who were able to attend—the service was limited to those who lived nearby—wore masks and stood several feet apart. Some stayed in their car as Reverend Mitchell Carter delivered the eulogy. A few hours later, Paige, 59, was buried three minutes down the road. Each man died after contracting the coronavirus.

As Campbell and his fellow county commissioners observe the reopening of barbershops, nail salons, and retail stores in neighboring states, they are left to wonder what lies ahead. Hill Hospital is fronting the cost to make masks for Sumter residents and hoping that a spike does not happen; the people in the county are limiting close contact to prevent a more rapid spread of the virus. But they see communities like Early County, Georgia, with demographics similar to theirs, where residents who have yet to overcome the first wave of the virus fear that the second is already upon them. “I know everybody is wanting to get out and get back to doing the things they did before, but now is not the time,” Campbell told me; he knows what the virus could do if the country tries to rush back into normalcy. “[My cousins] died within a day” of each other, he said. “This is a serious matter, and I just pray and hope that all people take this seriously—because it is for real.”

I asked Campbell how he was processing the dual funerals. “It’s still unbelievable,” he said. “We’re going to have a memorial when everything is better, because they need to be celebrated in that way.” He could not say how soon that day would come.

Adam Harris is a staff writer at The Atlantic.