Vermont schools and businesses are open. How the tiny New England state tamed COVID

COVID-19 continues to surge uncontrolled across the country and hospitals are stretched thin. Rural, sparsely populated states are bearing the brunt of the pandemic. Wyoming and the Dakotas have some of the highest rates of new cases per capita in the U.S. The Federation of American Scientists last week said North Dakota has the highest COVID-19 mortality rate in the world, and South Dakota was number three (Czech Republic is number two).

Meanwhile, there’s another sparsely populated rural state in Northern New England that’s done almost everything right: Vermont. It has had 3600 cases and 63 deaths — in total — since the pandemic started. That’s according to the New York Times.