Where South Dakota Ranks in Aggressive Coronavirus Contaiment

The human population of the planet we live on is currently traversing uncharted territory. This place in history where we find ourselves existing has taken on a surreal nature. It is as if we are all starring in a very frightening sci-fi movie. In the past, you could have pointed at the movie screen and dismissively said, "Well that would never happen!"

But the coronavirus pandemic has changed our lives going forward. For how long? No one is certain. The implications, socially, economically, scientifically, and personally, remain to be determined.

The statisticians at WalletHub have taken a numbers-only scientific look at what each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia have done and are doing to contain the COVID-19 outbreak.

To get to their ranking determination, they looked at numerous applicable categories, including, but not limited to: public health emergency preparedness funding, influenza, and pneumonia death rates, percentage of state's population lacking health care coverage, poverty rates, public hospital system quality, public healthcare spending, percentage of the at-risk chronically ill population, life expectancy, infectious disease rates, states who have activated the National Guard, states recommending curfews, states closing schools, percentage of workers with paid sick leave, states restricting travel, the number of COVID-19 deaths and much more.

South Dakota ranked 16th in this study. So better than two-thirds of the rest of the country.

To see the complete study, see WalletHub.