Where Does CT Rank Among Safest States During The Coronavirus?

CONNECTICUT — As infection rates from the coronavirus subside across most of the country, and the warmer weather lures people outside and into restaurants and other venues, local economies are starting to rev their engines. Just how much horsepower any business can expect will likely be a function of how safe people feel.

The personal finance gurus at WalletHub developed a methodology to determine where the post-coronavirus economic turnaround might kick into high gear first. They gauged a state's safety by such now-familiar metric's as its rate of vaccination, coronavirus positivity, and hospitalizations.

Connecticut ranked No. 18 on the "safest state list," scoring particularly well in the vaccination rate category, which was double-weighted. Nearby New Hampshire came in first, followed by Hawaii, Alaska, Kansas and Vermont.

The ratings were based upon the data available as of March 31.

Connecticut's coronavirus safety achievements have been made more extraordinary in comparison with neighboring states which rank at the very bottom of the list. New York (47) and New Jersey (49) made the bottom five along with West Virginia (48), Michigan (50) and Georgia (51).

One of the principal metrics that WalletHub used to determine a state's safety is its coronavirus vaccination rate, and that's the category where Connecticut shines. When the data was compiled, the state's 55.72 percent vaccination rate positioned it third in the nation behind only New Hampshire and New Mexico. Maine and Massachusetts round out the top five vaccination states. Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee and Indiana are the bottom five states with the worst vaccination rate records.

"Since nearly all adults will be eligible for the vaccine by April 19, the U.S. will become a lot safer in the coming months, which in turn will have a tremendously positive impact on the economy. More vaccination leads to greater consumer confidence, and the number of people who are willing to shop in person should rise sharply because people know they are protected by the vaccine," said Jill Gonzalez, WalletHub analyst. "Increased safety will have an especially big impact on certain industries, like travel, which experienced big revenue drops due to both government restrictions and people being afraid to be in an enclosed space with others. The safer conditions are, the more businesses will thrive as restrictions are lifted and consumers return."

The category weighted the highest by WalletHub was death rate, and here Connecticut ranked in the middle of the pack at No. 24. The category leaders were Alaska, Hawaii, Wyoming, Kansas and Oregon. Holding up the rear — the states with the highest number of COVID-19-associated deaths per capita at the end of March — were Georgia, New Jersey, Utah, New York and Nebraska.

WalletHub analysts said there is a "weak positive correlation" between a state's vaccination rate ranking and the death rate ranking.

"In other words, as the vaccination rate increases, the death rate decreases,” Gonzalez said. "It's important to consider the fact that only around 16 percent of the population is vaccinated so far, but a much greater portion will become eligible for vaccination soon. In the future, we should expect a stronger correlation between the two variables as the vaccination rate increases.”

The counter-balance to a state's vaccination rate is its positive testing rate, the number of confirmed cases of the virus compared to the amount of testing done. The lower this rate, the safer the state. When the data for the WalletHub study was collected, the coronavirus positivity rate in Connecticut was at 3.9 percent, the 16th best in the nation. California, Hawaii, Arkansas, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New Mexico were at the top of the list. Michigan, South Dakota, New Jersey, Nebraska and Pennsylvania finished at the bottom.

Gov. Ned Lamont has often said the state pays particularly close attention to the hospitalization rates, as it's one thing to catch COVID-19 and something else entirely to require admission to a health care facility for treatment. The Nutmeg State had among the highest admission rates in the WalletHub survey, only trailing seven states, including New York and New Jersey. Hawaii, Mississippi, Maine, Oregon, and California performed the best in this category.

WalletHub's complete methodology can be found here.