Which U.S. states are ready to help those at-risk due to the COVID-19 pandemic? 

With over 3.6 million confirmed worldwide as of the May 6 tally and several weeks of lockdowns, COVID-19 has placed a massive strain in both health and finances which can be clearly felt by almost everyone. These shocks are magnified for the less-privileged and the physically vulnerable.

Given the amount of damage the people have taken from the pandemic crisis, support from the government is much needed, now more than ever. Which U.S. states are up for the task?

WalletHub conducted a study to assess the support system of U.S. states to protect populations at risk due to COVID-19.  Here are the results.

Highlights

Massachusetts is the most equipped in supporting those at-risk among the states. It performed particularly well in terms of unemployment insurance recipiency, sheltering the homeless, and delivering food to the elderly.

The District of Columbia is the second in rank based on WalletHub’s assessment. The district stood out in terms of the provision of permanent supportive housing beds for the homeless.

Other states in the top five include Rhode Island (3rd), Maine (4th), and North Dakota (5th).

On the other extreme, it is North Carolina (51st)  which has the least amount of coronavirus support. It is exceptionally low-performing when it comes to the recipiency rate of unemployment insurance.

Mississippi (50th) is the second-worst U.S. state when it comes to coronavirus support. It performed noticeably poor in unemployment insurance recipiency and the provision of permanent supportive housing beds.

Other overall low performers include Arizona (49th),  Georgia (48th), and South Carolina (47th). 

Here are some more rankings of the U.S. states based on the type of support provided:

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered an unprecedented pause of economic activity for almost the entire world. With this, we cannot expect citizens to bounce back smoothly without some kind of assistance. For both the good- and bad-performing U.S. states, there is a need to exhaust every possible way that we can think of in order to aid our people.

Methodology

In order to identify the states with the best and worst coronavirus support for the citizens at-risk, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across three key dimensions:

1.  Coronavirus Relief & Medical Services
2. Food and Housing Assistance
3. Unemployment Support.

In order to quantify these three dimensions, 17 metrics were used, all graded on a 100-point scale, with 100 being the best possible rating. The weighted average across all metrics was then computed in order to gain the final overall scores for the states.