COVID-19 performance index
Context: India seeks a New Zealand, Vietnam top COVID-19 performance index, India at 86
Key highlights:
- New Zealand and Vietnam were ranked the best performing countries in their response to the pandemic according to a COVID-19 “performance index” put together by the Lowy Institute, an Australian think-tank, which sought to assess the impact of geography, political systems and economic development in assessing outcomes.
- The index, which was based on six different indicators including
- confirmed cases,
- confirmed deaths,
- cases per million people,
- deaths per million people,
- cases as a proportion of tests, and
- tests per thousand people.
- Fewer reported cases and deaths, both in aggregate and per capita terms, point towards a better response to the virus.
- More tests conducted on a per capita basis reveal a more accurate picture of the extent of the pandemic at the national level.
- Lower rates of positive tests, meanwhile, indicate greater degrees of control over the transmission of COVID-19.
- India ranked 86 out of 98 countries, while the United States placed 94 and Brazil at the bottom of the index.
- New Zealand and Vietnam led the list, followed by Taiwan, Thailand and Cyprus in the top five.
- Sri Lanka was the best faring nation in South Asia, ranking 10, while the Maldives was at 25, Pakistan at 69, Nepal at 70, and Bangladesh at 84.
- China was not included “due to a lack of publicly available data on testing”.
Regional response:
- Assessing regional responses, it found that although the outbreak began in China, the Asia-Pacific region fared the best, while Europe and the U.S. were initially overwhelmed.
- Europe, “registered the greatest improvement over time of any region” before succumbing to a second wave which it attributed to more open borders.
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