Written by Trinity Torgerson (News Writer)
Counties all over the U.S. are following the rules given to help end the spread of the coronavirus, although some struggle more than others. The rules include taking part in social distancing, washing your hands, covering your cough, and calling if you’re sick. Trump has put up a grading system to show the scores of the counties and how well they are following the guidelines. Counties located in Alabama, Mississippi, Wyoming, and other states have been noticed as the places where the rules are most avoided and their grades begin to lower. Where states like Nevada and Hawaii have a better grade for following the rules in their counties. The grades show a picture of who is following the rules and this helps so that governors and the white house administration can offer guidance to the states and give strategy on how to raise their grade and fight the pandemic.
On March 19th Trump announced the “next phase” to prevent the spread of COVID-19. President Trump told all governors that his next step in taking care of the coronavirus will be giving out grades county by county showing how well they are following the laws and how high of a risk their county is for catching and spreading the coronavirus. Trump and his administration said that the plan being developed was to help classify counties with respect to continued risk. The counties are separated into three levels, low, medium and high and letter grades. The grades are being used to figure out new guidelines for state and local policymakers to use in their decision making. They will help them choose whether to increase, decrease, or maintain the social distancing guidelines and for how long. These grades and maps of the grades given will also determine whether to let certain companies to run again. The president has been clear about his goals to reopen business. He planned for Easter, April 12th to reopen businesses and get the country back into business but the date decided failed to hold the plan. The grades will help them once again determine how the laws of the country should be set.
States like Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina all have very low grades and as of right now and hold the lowest scores out of all the states recorded grades. Alabama has an F on the score and grades in their countries consist of only Ds and Fs. Their number one cause of their grade is the distance traveled of their counties and average mobility. South Carolina is second in failing the grade and has grades relating to Alabama with only Ds and Fs. Mississippi ranges from Low As to Low Ds and their change in non-essential visits has increased dramatically. Tennessee has a D- and gets closer to an F each day as their difference in encounter density goes up every few days bringing their countries grades down when they already consist of mostly Cs. Lastly, North Carolina also has a D- and shows that their people are spending way too much of their time on non-essential visits and is greatly affecting their grades showing counties grading as holding 17 Fs.
Nevada takes place as the number one state for following the coronavirus rules and leads with a B. Nevada’s counties mostly consist of high grades and continue to raise with the amount of effort put into following them. Following the rules so clearly has caused them to have the least amount of deaths reported out of all states so far and shows how the guidelines can save lives and lower the risk of coronavirus. Nevada has more than 70% reduction in non-essential visits. Another state that holds a close score to Nevada is Hawaii, Hawaii has a B+ and has shown to have less reported cases. They have all Bs and one C reported and show great improvement in reducing their average mobility.
The Claw 