Quick Recovery
The personal finance website WalletHub released a report yesterday on how quickly states are recovering from COVID-19, evaluating a variety of metrics ranging from fully vaccinated population to real Gross Domestic Product.
They say Iowa is the state with the second quickest recovery from COVID-19 in the country overall.
Of the 11 categories, Iowa is in the bottom half in only one…that’s unemployment rate vs. pre-COVID levels…and we rank 27th best because our unemployment rate was the among the very lowest in the country when this all started.
Iowa ranks best in the nation in avoiding supply shortages in hospitals, and third best in avoiding staff shortages at hospitals.
We are fifth best in share of vaccine supply used…and 13th best in share of population fully vaccinated.
We are 18th best in terms of lowest death rate, and 21st best in terms of lowest hospitalization rate, due to COVID…pretty good, since the disease most seriously affects older people, and Iowa’s population skews older.
We are 10th best in the country in terms of active real estate listings compared with pre-COVID levels…and 12th best for weekly job postings, then compared with now.
And keeping as much of our economy open as we did bears some benefits, according to the WalletHub survey…we’re 9th best for average daily restaurant visits by citizens…and overall, we’re 9th best in real GDP compared with pre-COVID levels.
You may have concerns about one state policy or another tied to the pandemic…but the numbers, compared with other states, are pretty good.
