Top 10 ‘safest states’ if you fear COVID-19, WalletHub reports

While our country’s recorded cases, deaths and transmission of the virus has plummeted, safety measures against COVID-19 and its variants are still in effect — though notably less regimented than in the earlier stages of the pandemic. Each state has handled containing and controlling the spread of the virus differently and WalletHub has released a study on which states have been most effective at containing the virus.

In short, which states are the safest from COVID-19? WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across five categories, including vaccination rate, positive testing rate, hospitalization rate, death rate and level of community transmission. While death rate and vaccination rate had a greater weight in overall scoring, each category was analyzed while grading each state out of 100 possible points. Higher point scores indicated a safe region.

WalletHub concluded that the top 10 safest states from COVID-19 are:

1. Vermont, with a score of 75.95.
2. North Carolina, following as a close runner-up with 75.32.
3. Rhode Island, at a total of 74.07 points.
4. New Hampshire, 73.60 points.
5. Connecticut, 69.86 points.
6. Maine, 69.13 points.
7. Hawaii, 67.61 points.
8. Colorado, 67.45 points.
9. District of Columbia, 67.25 points.
10. Nevada, 65.16 points.

The Green Mountain State has raised its ranking since July, as it was previously in fifth place for safest state from COVID-19. Vermont had the lowest hospitalization rate and the lowest positive testing rate compared to any other state, while ranking well in two other categories. The only area that Vermont struggled in was its level of community transmission, coming in at fifth-highest in the country.

North Carolina, as a runner-up, tied for first in two categories, as well. North Carolina ranked highest for vaccination rate and tied for the lowest death rate in the U.S., while ranking well by the other three metrics.

This data was gathered from the U.S. Census Bureau, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and COVID-19 Electronic Laboratory Reporting. WalletHub also found in this study that “blue” states were slightly safer from COVID-19 than “red” states, statistically. The 10 least safe areas from the Coronavirus are, according to WalletHub:

1. Louisiana, 14.31.
2. West Virginia, 15.50.
3. Tennessee, 16.67.
4. Georgia, 18.92.
5. Kentucky, 19.24.
6. Indiana, 23.90.
7. Mississippi, 26.42.
8. Idaho, 27.47.
9. Arkansas, 27.67.
10. Wyoming, 29.75.