North Dakota and West Virginia Have Found the Secret to a Successful Vaccine Rollout

• The states with the top vaccination rates include North Dakota, West Virginia, and New Mexico.
• All three states have given more than 65 percent of the vaccines they have been allotted.
• Comparatively, California has given only about 37 percent of the vaccines it’s been allotted.

What’s the secret to a successful vaccine rollout? To find out, ask North Dakota.

The state has put more than 80 percent of the COVID-19 vaccines it has received as of Jan. 21 into people’s arms, according to a Bloomberg tracker.

That’s well above the rate for the lowest-performing state — California, at nearly 37 percent — and the country at large, which has used about 49 percent of the shots it has distributed.

North Dakota isn’t the only place that has risen above the rest, though. The top four also include West Virginia, Washington, D.C., and New Mexico, which all have rates above 65 percent.

Let’s take a closer look at what’s going right in these states and the vaccination strategies other governors might consider implementing in their rollout plans.