GRAND ISLAND- The vast swaths of open space beyond the Omaha and Lincoln metros in Nebraska would seem an unlikely place for a coronavirus epidemic. People spread out over rural towns, small cities and farmland. The large majority living in single-family homes. No mass transit systems. Social distancing? It’s part of the natural landscape.

But the reality in this pandemic is proving radically different than that expectation in some areas outside Nebraska’s biggest cities, said Dr. Angela Hewlett, an infectious disease expert at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

Many in rural Nebraska work side by side in large food processing and meatpacking centers. Their work is seen as part of an essential industry, and it’s not a job that lends itself to telecommuting.

And it only takes one infection in a small, close-knit community to send COVID-19 cases spiking through the roof.

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