Where Does New Jersey Fall Among 'Safest States' For COVID-19?

NEW JERSEY — Even with aggressive measures to slow the spread of COVID-19 in densely packed New Jersey, a study released by WalletHub on Thursday said that the Garden State is in the lower half of the 50 states in terms of how "safe" residents are from the virus.

New Jersey came in at number 31 on the WalletHub safety study, just behind New Mexico and ahead of Tennessee.

The financial website noted used five metrics for its rankings. The numbers were based on data from Jan. 13-16, said a spokeswoman.

The metrics used were:

• Transmission rates
• Positive testing rates
• Hospitalizations
• Deaths
• Share of the eligible population getting vaccinated.

The site notes that "safer" states will also save their economies.

"The lower COVID-19 transmission and deaths are in a state, the more that state is able to eliminate restrictions on businesses," the site noted. "The U.S. is off to a rough start so far, as only 0.62 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 (received both doses) as of Jan. 20."

The safest state also happens to be the state with the lowest density in the nation: Alaska. Alaska has vaccinated the highest percentage of its population so far, WalletHub said. (Alaska's population is 731,000.)

The website compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The top 10 "safest" for the past week were:

1. Alaska (Safest)
2. Vermont
3. Colorado
4. Montana
5. North Dakota
6. Hawaii
7. Iowa
8. Utah
9. Minnesota
10. Missouri

See the interactive map below.

As for the bottom ten, based on hospitalizations, transmission, vaccinations, and more:

They are: 42. Kansas, 43. Arkansas, 44. Pennsylvania, 45. California, 46. Georgia, 47. South Carolina, 48. Nevada, 49. Mississippi, 50. Alabama, and 51. Arizona.

"Populations were taken into account, and all the metrics are calculated as rates (per capita, or share of population)," said the website's communications director.

In terms of the death rate per population in the last week, the CDC continually updates its map of how every state is doing. Six of the states with the highest death rates last week were in WalletHub's bottom 10: Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the nation. A recent Patch study that looked at death tolls in each county from 2019 to 2020 showed that the most dense counties had the biggest percent increase in deaths.

This past Tuesday, Gov. Phil Murphy said that New Jersey needs to get more vaccines from the federal government, and then to get them to the population faster. Right now, essential workers, senior citizens, and people with certain chronic medical conditions are eligible to be vaccinated, but many have been unable to get the first dose.

On Saturday, the American death toll due to coronavirus surpassed 416,000 lives.

Find more information and places to register for the vaccine on the New Jersey COVID-19 Information Hub.

Read more about the WalletHub survey here.

Here is a map of all the states and their rankings. To get a state's rank, move your cursor over the state.

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