While healthcare, state and local professionals around the state are ramping up efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus throughout the state, a recent study from the consumer website WalletHub found that Florida is taking less drastic measures than other states in the U.S.
The report released by the personal-finance website ranked the Sunshine State the 8th Least Aggressive State, despite Governor Ron DeSantis issuing a statewide stay-at-home order last week.
The number of #coronavirus cases in the U.S. continues to rise, and government responses have varied widely by state. WalletHub released an updated report on how aggressively each state is fighting the virus. See how your state measures up here: https://t.co/y1KZcTQT4j #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/E0iFhCHXQk
— WalletHub (@wallethub) April 7, 2020
To identify which states are taking the most aggressive actions to combat coronavirus, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 51 key metrics. The data set ranges from cases of COVID-19 per capita, the uninsured population, the share of the workforce in affected industries, school closures, ICU beds, and shelter-in-place policies.
Below, you can see highlights from WalletHub’s report, along with a summary of the largest changes in rank in the state of Florida.
Here are some of the biggest categories that contributed to the ranking.
Aggressiveness Against the Coronavirus in Florida (1=Best, 25=Avg.):
- 51st – State and Local Public Health Laboratories per Capita
- 24th – Tested Cases of COVID-19 per Capita
- 36th – Public Hospital System Quality
- 40th – Population Density
- 34th – Share of Workers with Access to Paid Sick Leave
- 46th – Total Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) Funding Per Capita
- 40th – Public Healthcare Spending per Capital
While the state performed well in certain categories, like ranking first in lowest influenza and pneumonia death rate per capita, other barometers like the highest share of the population without health insurance coverage contributed to Florida’s ranking.
Overall, Florida ranked was 44th. The new ranking dropped Florida seven spots from last week’s ranking.
For the full report, click HERE.