Report shows West Virginia among top 20 states for COVID-19 safety
(The Center Square) – As states tackle COVID-19 vaccination distribution, some states have a better handle on it than others, making some states safer than others, according to a new report from WalletHub.
West Virginia ranked in the top half in the nation, coming in 17th in WalletHub’s ranking, ahead of neighboring states Ohio (22nd), Virginia (24), Maryland (26), Kentucky (39) and Pennsylvania (47). The Mountaineer State ranked third in the country in highest vaccination rate, finishing behind only Alaska and New Mexico.
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice announced Wednesday the state would receive an increase in its vaccine allocation from the federal government.
“There’s going to be about a million vaccines that are going to be given to pharmacies all across our land, and it’s going to be appropriated by population,” Justice said. “It’s going to give West Virginia between an additional 2,500 and 3,000 vaccines per week.”
With only 2% of the population fully vaccinated, WalletHub, a personal finance website, compared each state and the District of Columbia to find out which states are the safest. It compared COVID-19 transmissions, positive testing, hospitalizations, death rates and the share of eligible population getting vaccinated to come up with a safe score.
“The level of safety in a state is crucial to its economy because it determines the way businesses are allowed to operate,” said Jill Gonzalez, a WalletHub analyst. “States will not remove their current COVID-19 restrictions until certain safety benchmarks are met, such as reduction of the transmission rate to specific levels. Until it is safe enough to remove these restrictions, businesses will continue to be stunted across the U.S.”
In the report, Alaska ranked as the nation’s safest state based on data available as of 12:30 p.m. EST on Wednesday. North Dakota was second, followed by Hawaii, Colorado, Vermont, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Nebraska and Minnesota.
Alabama was the least safe state and the state with the highest death rate. South Carolina was a spot ahead of Alabama, preceded by Arizona, Texas, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, Iowa and New York.
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