This State Has the Fewest COVID-19 Cases, By Far

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Oct 8, 7:36AM EDT

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This State Has the Fewest COVID-19 Cases, By Far — © Sean Pavone / iStock via Getty Images

America has posted 7,553,392 confirmed cases of COVID-19 so far, based on the Bing COVID-19 tracker, the highest figure in the world. The number of U.S. COVID-19 deaths, at 213,462, also leads the world. One state has, by far, the lowest number of confirmed cases in the nation. Vermont’s total is 1,827.

Vermont trails the second largest state based on confirmed cases by a wide margin. Ranked number two in confirmed cases is Maine with 5,604. Just above this, Wyoming has 6,770. New Hampshire has 8,731.

State population is part of the reason for low confirmed case counts, although it does not account for the gulf between Vermont and Maine. Maine’s case count is three times Vermont’s.

Vermont is the second smallest state by population at 623,989, behind Wyoming’s 578,759. Alaska’s count is 731,454, and it ranks fifth in confirmed case counts at 9,861. North Dakota’s population is the next smallest at 762,062. It ranks 10th in confirmed case counts at 24,861. South Dakota’s is 884,659, which puts it next on the population list. It ranks 12th based on confirmed cases at 25,906. Maine’s population ranks 42nd at 1,344,212.
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The proximity of people to one another should play a role. In Vermont’s case, it is at a disadvantage over most states with low case counts. It ranks 38th in population density with 68 people per square mile. Maine ranks 38th at 43 people per square mile. Wyoming’s population per square mile is 49th in the country at just six per mile. New Hampshire ranks 21st at 147.

Vermont is in a cluster of states with low confirmed cases. These include Maine and New Hampshire. However, Massachusetts, to its south, was one of the hardest-hit states early in the spread of COVID-19. It still ranks 21st by confirmed case count at 136,492.

Most experts attribute the low case count in Vermont to state policies and local habits. Vermont was early to shut down and slow and deliberate in its reopening. Contract tracing was very aggressive. So was the extent to which it closed its borders to other states.

So, the lesson of Vermont is probably public policy as much as population size or population density.
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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.