Maryland's Coronavirus Response Ranks Among Best In US: Index

MARYLAND — Quick moves by Maryland leaders to curb the spread of the coronavirus last year — including school closures, mask mandates and severe curbs on restaurants and other gatherings — ranked the state ninth most effective in the nation at handling the pandemic, according to a new analysis by UC Berkeley's Othering & Belonging Institute.

Neighboring West Virginia also ranked in the top 10, while adjacent Virginia ranked 11th in terms of performance in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

March 5, 2021, marked one year since the first three coronavirus cases were reported in Maryland. The trio of Montgomery County residents — a woman in her 50s and a married couple in their 70s — contracted the virus while on a Nile River cruise.

Gov. Larry Hogan immediately declared a state of emergency in Maryland, which allowed the state to "fast-track" its response to the illness and ramp up coordination with local health agencies.

The governor ordered all restaurants, bars, gyms, and movie theaters to close on March 16, 2020, in an effort to stem the spread of COVID-19. Essential services — such as gas stations, banks, pharmacies, and grocery stores — were allowed to stay open.

By March 23, 2020, all nonessential businesses were ordered to close.

While Maryland was hit hard by the pandemic, other states fared much worse, even states that imposed stricter measures. New Jersey, for example, ranked 46th out of 50 states in terms of performance despite having some of the toughest, more restrictive COVID-19 orders in the nation, including requiring residents from many other states to quarantine upon entering New Jersey.

Maryland hospitals at times filled enough to worry health care officials, but never did the state have hospitals swamped by patients as was the case at times in New York and California.

"The best performing states are Vermont, Alaska, Maine, Hawaii, and Oregon, which all have the benefit of being more remote and isolated, but also had excellent public health responses," the institute said in the report titled "2020 Inclusiveness Index Measuring Global Inclusion and Marginality." "The worst performing states, however, were South Dakota, Iowa, Mississippi, Arizona, and New Jersey."

Many of these states had outbreaks among vulnerable populations, such as Indigenous, Latinos, and African Americans. South Dakota "was notorious for its lax response, and for refusing, for example, to issue a mask mandate," the researchers said in the report. "One out of every 500 South Dakotans died from the pandemic."

The most effective states, according to research published in the institute's 2020 Inclusiveness Index, were those that put in place mitigation measures based on scientific data.

Here are the top 15 states in how well they responded to the coronavirus in 2020, according to the analysis:

1. Vermont
2. Alaska
3. Maine
4. Hawaii
5. Oregon
6. New Hampshire
7. Washington
8. West Virginia
9. Maryland
10. California
11. Virginia
12. North Carolina
13. Massachusetts
14. Delaware
15. Kentucky

In Maryland, Hogan has gradually eased limits on social gathering sizes and capacity at entertainment venues, recreational sporting events, and in-person graduations.

On Monday he said all Marylanders aged 16 and above will be eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine at any mass vaccination site beginning Tuesday.

By April 12, all providers in the state — such as pharmacies and local health departments — will be required to administer shots to people 16 and up.

Many school districts in Maryland are offering hybrid learning this spring and planning for the possible return to five in-person days per week in the fall.

Marylanders are still required to wear face masks at public indoor facilities, outdoors when social distancing isn't possible, and in businesses and retail shops — including grocery stores and fitness centers.

UC Berkeley's Othering & Belonging Institute's annual Inclusiveness Index typically ranks states and countries on their levels of inclusivity using six measures: outgroup violence, political representation, income inequality, anti-discrimination laws, rates of incarceration, and immigration and asylum policies.

The Institute added COVID-19 response to its 2020 index.

"What is clear, however, is that the pandemic has had a severe and disproportionate impact on communities of color, the elderly, and people with disabilities," the researchers said. "Moreover, the response to the pandemic has revealed or exacerbated dysfunctions in our health care systems and governance."

You can read more of the report here.

To compile the ranking, the Othering & Belonging Institute measured the performance of all 50 states and 172 countries primarily based on three factors: rates of infection, deaths and testing.

The data revealed a trend: state governments that were more aggressive in issuing mask mandates, stay-at-home orders, and physical distancing rules fared better than states that did not.

Globally, the three most successful responses to COVID-19 came from the United Arab Emirates, Denmark, and Iceland. Other successful countries profiled in the report include New Zealand, Vietnam and Rwanda.

The bottom three countries on the list were San Marino, Montenegro and Belgium, all small European countries.

The United States, then led by President Donald Trump, ranked 161 out of 172 countries, placing it among the bottom 6 percent of countries.

Brazil and the United Kingdom were also near the bottom of the scale, scoring rankings of 155 and 141, respectively.

SEE ALSO:

• COVID-19 Vaccine Open To Marylanders 16 And Up Starting April 6
• One Year On: How The COVID-19 Pandemic Shaped Maryland