New Delhi: India has been ranked 34th among 53 countries in the world that have handled the coronavirus pandemic most effectively, according to a Covid Resilience Ranking by Bloomberg.
The survey was published Tuesday and gives India a resilience score of 58.1, way below top performer New Zealand which has a score of 85.4. Pakistan, with a score of 61.7, has performed better than India and was ranked 27th, whereas Bangladesh, with a score of 64.2, was placed at the 24th position.
The report by Bloomberg took note of where the virus was handled most effectively with the least amount of disruption to business and society. It surveyed 53 economies of over $200 billion on some key metrics such as growth in virus cases to overall mortality rates, testing capabilities and vaccine supply agreements, capacity of local healthcare systems, the impact of lockdowns on these economies, and citizens’ freedom of movement.
According to the report, India sees 93 cases per one lakh people in one month. And the country’s fatality rate has been 1.2 per cent. With 97 deaths per million and a test positivity rate of 4.2 per cent, India is also among those countries that have agreements to receive four kinds of Covid-19 vaccines. India currently has agreements with Oxford/AstraZeneca, Novavax, Gameleya and Bharat Biotech.
US, UK, China and Canada have the most number of agreements to receive Covid-19 vaccines — five.
With 9.1 million cases, India has also been ranked among the virus epicentres and placed below the US, that has 12.2 million cases. India is the only Asian country in top 10 virus epicentres, according to data obtained from the Johns Hopkins University for the survey.
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Pakistan, Bangladesh performing better
Japan is the best performing country in Asia, with a resilience score of 85, and has been ranked in the second spot, below New Zealand. The top 10 best performing countries included five Asian nations — Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, China and Vietnam.
Apart from Pakistan and Bangladesh, India was also placed below other Asian countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. In all, 12 Asian countries have scored better than India in handling the coronavirus pandemic.
The report, however, said that Pakistan and Bangladesh have performed better due to their “relative remoteness” and younger average population that has kept the overall mortality rates down. It also mentioned the possibility of an unclear picture due to limited testing and poor quality data. But that is a phenomenon occurring everywhere, the report added.
Of the 53 countries in the index, New Zealand, Australia and Singapore have a test positivity rate of 0 per cent, while Mexico (62.3 per cent) and Poland (44.8 per cent) have the highest test positivity rates. Belgium has the highest number of cases per lakh (2,339).
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