As the U.S. continues its efforts to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic, staying safe is one of Americans’ top concerns. As the personal finance website WalletHub noted, though, some states are already safer than others based on how well they have kept the pandemic under control and how much they are vaccinating.
In order to find out the safest states during the COVID-19 pandemic, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across five key metrics. The data set used includes the rates of COVID-19 transmission, positive testing, hospitalizations and death, as well as the share of the eligible population getting vaccinated.
Released Thursday, the survey’s results listed Virginia as the 19th safest state in the country during the pandemic.
The website took notice of the move toward normality, noting that safety is essential for getting the economy back on track, as the lower COVID-19 transmission and deaths are in a state, the fewer restrictions there will be and the more confidence people will have to shop in person. While most states have fully reopened, the website noted that the country will be able to get completely back to life as normal only once most of the population is fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. The good news is that the U.S. is picking up speed with vaccination as around 48% of the population was fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as of July 7.
The five key metrics WalletHub used in its survey are vaccination rate, positive testing rate, hospitalization rate, death rate, and transmission rate.
The survey determined that the ten safest places during the pandemic in order of the safest are Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Hawaii, New Mexico, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine, the District of Columbia, and Delaware.
On the other hand, according to WalletHub, the ten least safe states in the country are Idaho, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arizona, Wyoming, West Virginia, Nevada, Arkansas, and Missouri.
