COVID-19: This State Is In The Worst Trouble

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Feb 14, 9:33AM EST

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COVID-19: This State Is In The Worst Trouble — © ake1150sb / iStock via Getty Images

While the pace at which COVID-19 has slowed based on new confirmed cases per day, there is anxiety that there may be another surge. It could be caused by a slow roll-out in vaccinations. It could be triggered by variants that spread rapidly or are more deadly than the one most prevalent in the U.S. today. The rate of confirmed cases varies widely from state to state, with some much worse off than others.

Currently, America has 27,837,755 confirmed cases, about a quarter of the world’s total. A month ago, that number rose by over 200,000 a day. That rate has dropped by half. Fatal cases total 488,364 and continue to rise by as many as 3,000 a day. Worries persist that deaths could reach 600,000 by summer.

The most frequent measures of the spread of COVID-19 in America include confirmed cases, fatal cases, and hospitalizations. Levels of vaccination have gotten added to this list recently. About 11% of the U.S. population has received at least one dose of vaccine. Those who have been given a second dose constitute a much smaller number.

Another means to measure the spread of COVID-19 is cases and deaths per 100,000 people. This allows comparisons from county to county and state to state on an apples to apple basis. Today, the state worst off by that measure is South Carolina. It has the highest total of cases per 100,000 residents averaged over the last seven days. Its figure is 56, well ahead of second-place New York State at 45. At the far end of the spectrum, Hawaii’s figure is 4.

According to the Bing COVID-19 Tracker, South Carolina has 483,140 confirmed cases and 7,911 fatal ones.

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Vaccinations in South Carolina represent a problem as well. The national rate of people who have been vaccinated at least once stands at 11%. In South Carolina, the comparable figure measures 9.9%. Nationwide, 3.9% of people have received their second dose. In South Carolina, the comparable number sits at 3%.

What is South Carolina’s short term future as the disease continues to spread? WIS News reports Dr. Helmut Albrecht, the chair of the Prisma-University of South Carolina Medical Group, said “It’s improving dramatically. So, it’s gone from totally unacceptable, to unacceptable.”

That has to be cold comfort of South Carolina’s residents, who face both the worst COVID-19 case figures in the U.S. and a poor vaccination record.

Click here to read This Is How Many People Have Died Of COVID-19 in Every State

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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.