Shocking new data has revealed hidden coronavirus hotspots in small town America that are among some of the hardest hit areas of the country.

The epicenter in New York and other major outbreaks in Seattle, California and Detroit have filled the headlines but a new map shows that some of the most deadly outbreaks are being experienced in Georgia, Arkansas and Mississippi where aging communities are dying at greater rates and smaller hospitals are struggling to survive.

Many coronavirus maps focus on the total number of cases in each state but when these are narrowed down to a county level and compared to population, the deadly hit to smaller communities becomes more evident.

The county-level map, created by the University of Chicago, shows a worrying trend of quickly escalating cases in smaller towns and cities.

Outbreaks in less populous places such as Albany, Georgia, with a population of 77,000, are impacting communities on a much more severe level than more high-profile hotspots in the likes of San Francisco and Seattle, where deaths per capita are not as high.

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This map from the University of Chicago highlights in red the country's hotspots by cases per capita. Many are 'hidden' hotspots that are not being spoken about as much as their cases numbers remain low when compared to urban centers but their fatality rates are high

This University of Chicago mao show hotspots by number of confirmed virus cases alone

A shopped in Salt Lake City on Friday. The Utah city is a 'hidden' coronavirus hotspot

The picture-perfect town of Williansburg, Virginia, is also a 'hidden' coronavirus hotspot

'When you flip from just state-level data to county-level data, you get a lot more information,' says Marynia Kolak, assistant director of health informatics at the University of Chicago's Center for Spatial Data Science, told Scientific American.

'For example, there are a lot of areas in the South where the population is a lot smaller, but the proportion of people who have [COVID-19] is a lot greater. So that can cause potential challenges, because even though there are less people who have the virus, there are also correspondingly fewer hospital beds, [intensive care units] or ventilators.'

The first map looks at hotspots by total cases showing number of positive cases confirmed in each place.

The University of Chicago worked with the University of Wisconsin–Madison to authenticate that information, compiling data on both state and county levels and looking at each area's confirmed cases, deaths and number of cases weighted by population size.

The second map identifies hotspots based on the number of positive cases per 10,000 people, showing a worrying number of cases emerging in areas such as Salt Lake City, Utah; Jefferson County, Montana; and Idaho City as well as large outbreak centers in Indiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, South Carolina and Williamsburg in Virginia.

The most worrying hidden hotspot is seen in Albany, Georgia, which has one of the highest outbreaks per capita in the country.

The concerning level of cases and deaths in the state may not seem as severe when compared to the likes of New York City, where the Big Apples's 8.4 million population has seen its positive cases reach over 57,000.

In comparison the state of Georgia still has less than 200 deaths and 5,444 positive cases but the death rate by population is significantly high.

The New York–New Jersey–Massachusetts area had a fatality rate of 1.4 percent, whereas that of Albany, Georgia, was 7.65 percent, although the research notes that the death rate may seem higher because of a lack of testing for more minor cases of the virus.

Some areas outside of major cities may also be unaware of the extent of their own outbreak because testing is being conducted on lower levels than it is in cities already registered as a hotspot.

The maps were created with data drawn from Sunday, March 29, when cases in the likes of Georgia were lower, meaning the hidden hotspots may now be struggling even further.

Cases were growing so rapidly as the data was being gathered that numbers in some states were doubling by the day.

'Within the day it took to write up the report, the cluster in Mississippi doubled,' Kolak notes.

'And then it doubled again.'

By breaking down the cases per capita on a county level, the spread of the major outbreaks can also be more readily seen.

For example in hotspots such as Seattle, the outbreak is not confined to the city itself but is heavily hitting the surrounding counties.

The same is true in New York, New Jersey, New Orleans and Miami.

'The big [outbreaks] that I was expecting to see, like Seattle or New York, I didn't realize how widespread they were,' Kolak said.

The main concerns about these hidden coronavirus hotspots come from their location in more remote parts of the United States where the aging population is more at risk and where there is sometimes limited access to medical care.

As New York battles to keep it hospitals staffed and fights to find supplies, smaller hospitals with less resources are also in the same struggle. With less beds, they are also more rapidly overwhelmed by a smaller number of cases.

Rural America is bracing itself for the impact of the coronavirus pandemic as fearful city-dwellers begin to run from the spiraling crisis in the country's urban centers and head for less densely populated areas.

Less populous areas are experiencing 'disaster gentrification' as wealthy Covid-19 evacuees from the hotspot cities flock to the relative safety of picturesque towns.

In Blaine County Idaho, home to Sun Valley ski resort, more than half of the houses are rental properties. As of Wednesday, 228 had tested positive for the disease, around 10 percent of its population.

'People come here from all over the world,' ER doctor Brent Russell told the Idaho Statesman.

'When I'm in the ER, I get people from New York, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Seattle. Every week there's people from those places.

'Most likely someone from an urban area or multiple people from urban areas came here and they just set it off.'

A member of the Rhode Island National Guard approaches a home to check for New Yorkers on Saturday after a state ordered mandatory quarantine for people visiting from the hard-hit state

The National Guard was deployed to knock door-to-door on Friday, March 27, looking for anyone who has evacuated the coronavirus-stricken New York and arrived in Rhode Island

Tensions are rising in small towns where New York City residents have fled to escape the coronavirus hotspot as locals complain of ransacked supermarkets and hospitals grow more and more crowded. Pictured: A Stop & Shop store in East Hampton is overwhelmed

Sun Valley's little hospital has just two intensive care beds available and one ventilator.

From Maine to Washington, rural areas are seeing hundreds of thousands of city dwellers with the ability to work from home heading to their seasonal homes or renting properties.

Not only does this put a strain on overburdened hospitals but the newcomers buy up rapidly depleting stocks in local supermarkets and pharmacies.

The White House has recommended that anyone leaving New York should self-isolate for 14 days, but there are no clear federal guidelines for the rest of the country.

Since 2010, 126 rural hospitals across 31 states have closed and there are currently 2.7 million senior citizens in America living in a county with no hospital, some forced to drive hundred of miles for their medical care.

And if a severe outbreak was to hit a rural hospital, half of the counties in the country have no intensive care unit beds and an even more limited supply of ventilators, placing them in competition with larger, city hospitals battling to find more.

Some 18 million people live in a county with a hospital with no ICU unit, a quarter of those aged 60 or older, according to The Daily Yonder, which specializes on life in rural America.

Across the nation, there are over 51,000 general intensive care beds in urban counties, compared with just 5,600 in rural counties, according to data compiled by The Associated Press.

There are over 51,000 general intensive care beds in urban counties, compared with just 5,600 in rural counties and 8 million people live in a county with a hospital with no ICU unit

Those beds serve a smaller population than in urban areas, but it would still take fewer people in rural areas to overwhelm a typical hospital.

In fiscal year 2018, the average rural hospital had eight ICU beds, compared with 20 for a typical hospital in an urban area.

'This is the worst possible situation,' Alan Morgan, CEO of the National Rural Health Association, a non-profit that provides leadership for rural health matters told USA Today.

'Rural America is older, sicker and poorer. Now combine that with 2,000 rural hospitals where 1,300 have 25 or fewer beds, half of which have just one ventilator on site. Our system was designed for efficiency, not surge capacity.'

Kolak said that it is hoped the research will help to plan toward a more major outbreak in these hidden hotspots as the likes of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio call for a national enlistment for medical staff that will see them redeployed to the front lines of the fight against coronavirus when different areas of the country begin to reach their peak.

In Catron County, New Mexico, a county the size of Connecticut with only 3,500 residents, 41 percent of whom are over 65, doctors have been preparing to transfer patients to hospitals that can handle COVID-19 patients.

'What we have in Catron County are two primary care outpatient clinics with no beds or ventilators,' said Don Daniel, vice president of business development at Presbyterian Medical Services.

'It wouldn't be unusual for patients to travel 125 miles roundtrip,' to go to a clinic, he added.

Doctors have warned that some may need to relocate to the already struggling city hospitals as local facilities will quickly become overwhelmed.

'It's just obvious people are going to need to move,' said Dr. Peter Graham, executive medical director for Physicians Health Plan in Michigan.

'If we're able to find a ventilator bed in Indianapolis, in Chicago or Minneapolis or wherever, it is go, get them there!'