The John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center daily updates their list of all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, noting which states meet positivity recommendations and those that exceed them. As of September 1, 2020, 24 states had positivity levels at or below the recommended 5% and the remainder were above. Puerto Rico, the highest, was at 100%.
With some exceptions, those states, and the District of Columbia, that had the strictest mask mandates -everyone 2 years old and above required to wear masks- had the lowest positivity rates. They include Vermont (.40%); Maine (.61%); Connecticut (.91%); New Jersey (1.24%); Rhode Island (1.28%); District of Columbia (1.66%); and Massachusetts (1.66%). Delaware (3.65%) is in the middle of the list; Pennsylvania (4.77%) and California (4.92%) are at the higher end, but still meet positivity recommendations.
Montana (5.63%) is the exception, exceeding 5%.
New York (.80%) and Illinois (4.17%) require that those over 2 wear masks. New Mexico (2.36%), requires those 3 and older to wear masks. Washington (3.25%); Maryland (4.30%); Michigan (2.55%) and Oregon (4.60%) require those 5 and older to wear masks. All meet positivity recommendations of below 5%. Even though North Carolina (6.48%); Kansas (16.02%)and Wisconsin (8.51%) also require those 5 and older to wear masks, they exceed the recommended positivity rate.
With a few exceptions, the higher the age required to wear mask, the higher the positivity rate. Mississippi (14.57%); Kentucky (8.35%) and Minnesota (9.24%) require all who are 6 and above to wear masks. Alabama (15.09%) requires 7 and above. Indiana (8.82%), like Louisiana (4.61%), requires 8 and above. Louisiana just recently met positivity recommendations.
West Virginia (2.51%), requiring 9 and above to wear masks, and Ohio (3.13%), requiring 10 and above to wear masks, are exceptions. Like Ohio, Nevada (15.15%); Texas (11.21%); Arkansas (8.12%) and Virginia (6.79%) also require individuals 10 and above to wear masks, but they exceed the recommended positivity. Although South Carolina (12.14%) does not mandate masks, those cities/towns/counties that do require masks require 10 and above to wear them.
Colorado (3.24%), requiring 11 and above to wear masks, is another exception.
States that allow allow local governments to require masks, but do not mandate them statewide, exceed recommended positivity. Those states are Arizona (7.25%); Tennessee (7.29%) and Utah (8.91%).
For those states that recommend masks, but do not require, all but two, Alaska (2.74%) and New Hampshire (1.11%), exceed recommended positivity. Those states include Iowa (18.21%); Missouri (13.84%); Georgia (10.27%) and Hawaii (9.72%).
With the exception of Wyoming (2.33%), those states that neither mandate, nor recommend, masks have some of the highest rates in the country: South Dakota (22.99%); North Dakota (18.64%); Florida (12.26%); Idaho (11.56%); Oklahoma (9.94%) and Nebraska (9.92%).
No question there are other factors that lead to the positivity rates of each state, but the wearing of masks, particularly at younger ages, seems to be beneficial and worth considering.