The 33 States Where More Than 5% of Coronavirus Tests Are Coming Back Positive and Nursing Homes Are About to Run Out of Masks and PPE

August 4, 2020

At least 33 US states have more than five percent of all coronavirus tests coming back positive, a new report reveals.

These states are mostly in the South and the West, while the Northeast is populated with states that have a positive test rate from 0.7 percent to 4.8 percent.

Arizona currently leads the nation with the highest positive rate at 22.7 percent with at least 11 states also above ten percent.

Many of these states were spared early on in the pandemic, but hit harder when they reopened and lifted restrictions sooner.

Vermont, meanwhile, has the lowest rate at 0.7 percent and is among the states that were hit hard early on but enforced strict lockdowns to drive down cases.

What’s more, a number of states with high positive rates also have nursing homes with less than one week’s supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as N95 masks, surgical masks and gowns, driving fears that more care homes could experience outbreaks.

For theĀ report, the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) collected data from Johns Hopkins University.

Read the full story in the Daily Mail.