It's been a year since the first case of coronavirus was diagnosed in the United States, and it has since made its way across the country, leaving death and disease in its wake. While each state is facing a common enemy, many are handling the crisis differently.
A new study by WalletHub compared each state in the country, along with Washington D.C., to determine which states have been rising to the challenge of the pandemic and which have a ways to go.
Coming in at Number 1 is Alaska, which has the country's highest vaccination rates and one of the lowest hospitalization rates. The state doing the worst through COVID, according to the study, is Arizona, which has the highest positivity rate and hospitalization rate in the country.
So, where did North Carolina rank?
Number 33
Certainly not the worst, but still not the best, North Carolina didn't have any stand-out metrics compared to other states, middling in rates of positivity, hospitalization, and death.
The top 10 states are listed below in order:
- Alaska
- Vermont
- Colorado
- Montana
- North Dakota
- Hawaii
- Iowa
- Utah
- Minnesota
- Missouri
To determine the list, WalletHub compared each state using five factors: vaccination rate, positive testing rate, hospitalization rate, death rate, and transmission rate. The data used to rank the states' COVID safety were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The COVID Tracking Project, and rt.live.
Check out the full list of states here.
Photo: Getty Images