Health

New Zealand tops global Covid-19 management rankings

Sydney, Australia, Jan 29 (efe-epa).- New Zealand has topped the rankings of almost 100 countries and territories that have best managed the Covid-19 pandemic, according to an index published Thursday in Australia.

The Oceanian country was followed by Vietnam and Taiwan in second and third place.

The Covid Performance Index compares the response of governments to the pandemic in the 36 weeks following its 100th confirmed case of the virus, according to the Australian Lowy Institute, which prepared the study.

Rounding out the top 10 were Thailand (4th), Cyprus, Rwanda, Iceland, Australia, Latvia and Sri Lanka (10th). It also placed the United Kingdom in 66th place, Spain at 78th and the United States in 94th, although it excluded China due to lack of data.

At the bottom of the list was Brazil in 98th place, Mexico in 97th and Colombia in 96th.

New Zealand, which this week detected its first three Covid-19 infections since Nov. 18, has acted decisively since the start of the pandemic, which has allowed it to keep the accumulated cases at about 2,300, including 25 deaths.

Vietnam has accumulated 1,551 cases, including 35 deaths, and Taiwan has registered 890 infections and seven deaths.

“For nearly a year, governments and societies have been turned inwards to fight an invisible enemy, exposing competing structures, vulnerabilities, and political priorities,” the report said.

“Some countries have managed the pandemic better than others – but most countries outcompeted each other only by degrees of underperformance.”

The report states that “no single type of country emerged the unanimous winner in the period examined,” noting that the severity of the pandemic has varied since the crisis broke out, as well as the structural factors such as population size, levels of economic development and differences in political systems, which appear to influence the management of the pandemic.

“There may be some truth in the argument put forward by the American political scientist Francis Fukuyama that the dividing line in effective crisis response has not been regime type, ‘but whether citizens trust their leaders, and whether those leaders preside over a competent and effective state,'” it added.

“In general, countries with smaller populations, cohesive societies, and capable institutions have a comparative advantage in dealing with a global crisis such as a pandemic.”

The report is published after more than 100 million cases of Covid-19 were registered around the world, with the United States, India and Brazil as the countries with the most infections, according to independent data from Johns Hopkins University. EFE-EPA

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