New Study Shows NJ Is 6th Least Safe State Amid COVID-19

And here, I thought we were doing pretty well in the Garden State. Apparently not. Allow me to clarify....

I'm not ignorant to how hard we've been hit with the pandemic here in NJ. We're among the worst states hit with the coronavirus in the entire country. With that being said, I thought we would've been one of the states that, compared to the rest, was being super cautious and careful in regards to masking up, social distancing, etc.

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Well, I was wrong. A new study's results were released yesterday by WalletHub and they actually show that we're one of the LEAST safest states in the entire country! In fact, we come in at number 46 out of 51 (the analysis includes Washington DC, which is what makes the results out of 51 instead of 50). 46!!! How is New Jersey the 46th safest state in the country (which makes us the 6th least safe state) when we're the ones that have been feeling the impact of the pandemic the most??

WalletHub has examined our state as a whole and has found the following evidence regarding our safety during COVID-19 times:
New Jersey’s Safety During Coronavirus (1=Best; 25=Avg.):

• 18^th – Vaccination Rate
• 51^st – Positive Testing Rate
• 48^th – Hospitalization Rate
• 41^st – Death Rate
• 43^rd – Transmission Rate

Well, New Jersey has the absolute worst testing rate out of all 50 states and Washington DC. Meaning, NJ's got the most cases. We've also got huge transmission, hospitalization, and death rates compared to the rest of the country. Not that this comes as a shock to us residents, but seeing how we stack up compared to the rest of the country is definitely a sobering experience, especially when you observe that we don't really have too high of a vaccination rate so far compared to the other rates in the study.

We're super susceptible to contracting the virus within our own communities here in NJ, so while it's great that our numbers seem to finally be declining, we need to continue to monitor ourselves and our behaviors in an effort to keep ourselves as safe as possible from COVID-19.