Every Saturday, The Free Press, Mankato, Minnesota's daily newspaper, reports the number of new COVID-19 cases for the previous four weeks in the nine counties of south-central Minnesota. The data source is the Minnesota Department of Health. At = .05, are the new COVID-19 cases each week independent of the patients' county of residence? Use your analysis of the South-Central MN COVID-19 Cases 8.14-9,10 data to answer the following questions.

1. State the hypotheses and critical value for a chi-square test for independence.
2. Perform the chi-square test for independence. Are the results reliable based on Cochran's Rule? Explain your reasoning.
3. Report the chi-square test statistic, degrees of freedom, and p-value.
4. Based on your findings, do you reject or fail to reject the null hypothesis? Explain the reasons for your decision.
5. Study your analysis and interpret what its output reveals. Be specific about the relationship between the weekly COVID-19 data and the 9-county region.

New COVID-19 Cases by Week in South-Central Minnesota
Counties	8/14-8/20	8/21-8/27	8/28/-9/3	9/4-9/10	Total
Blue Earth	117	144	140	158	559
Brown	74	45	55	55	229
Faribault	17	29	39	43	128
Le Sueur	44	47	74	62	227
Martin	25	36	40	40	141
Nicollet	51	57	64	59	231
Sibley	32	56	41	46	175
Waseca	73	60	84	67	284
Watowan	23	33	23	35	114
Region Total	456	507	560	565	2088