Ten safest countries with the best COVID pandemic response

1. The Lowy Institute has looked at which countries and what types of Governments responded best.
2. The Institute found there was not a great difference between rich and poor countries
3. New Zealand handled the COVID-19 pandemic best, US is only number 94

New analysis has found that New Zealand has handled the coronavirus pandemic more effectively than any other country. This was acknowledged in a report by Stephen Dziedzic, writing for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Foreign Affairs (Asia Pacific) reporter.

According to ABC News: New Zealand tops Lowy Institute list as the country with the best response to coronavirus, Australia sits eighth.  The Lowy Institute has collected massive data that assesses the coronavirus response of almost 100 nations.

• The Lowy Institute has looked at which countries and what types of Governments responded best
• Australia has been ranked as eighth in the world
• The Institute found there was not a great difference between rich and poor countries

Researchers tracked COVID-19 case numbers in each country, as well as confirmed deaths and testing rates.

Australia also performed strongly and was ranked eighth in the world by the Lowy Institute and looks  at which countries responded best to the COVID-19 pandemic

The United States has been ravaged by the pandemic and languishes near the bottom of the table, at number 94. Indonesia and India did not perform much better, sitting at numbers 85 and 86, respectively.

Lowy did not rate China’s response to the pandemic, citing a lack of publicly available testing data reports ABC.

Rank	Country
1	New Zealand
2	Vietnam
3	Taiwan
4	Thailand
5	Cyprus
6	Rwanda
7	Iceland
8	Australia
9	Latvia
10	Sri Lanka

Vietnam was ranked second in terms of managing the coronavirus crisis.

Where are we now?

Shown is the rolling 7-day average. The number of confirmed cases is lower than the number of actual cases; the main reason for that is limited
testing.

What other continents can learn from Australia   The Australian Federal Government has revealed that it has sourced another 10 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, bringing the total ordered for Australia to 150 million. Most Australians will still be given the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine if it is approved by the regulator. Also, it’s been announced that everyone in Australia, including all visa holders, will be given a free vaccine. It’s hoped the rollout will be completed by October. Source:  ABC Coronacast podcast with Dr Norman Swan, Tegan Taylor  

The best response to the pandemic is seen in New Zealand.

The (Lowy) Institute’s Herve Lemahieu said, smaller countries had typically tackled COVID-19 more effectively than big countries.

“Countries with populations fewer than 10 million people proved more agile, on average than the majority of their larger counterparts in handling the health emergency,” he said in the ABC’s Coronacast  podcast.

Several small countries — including Cyprus, Rwanda, Iceland, and Latvia — are on the list of the 10 top-performing nations.  Mr. Lemahieu said, the data also disproved the theory that authoritarian regimes had managed the crisis more effectively than democracies.

“Authoritarian regimes started off better. They were able to mobilize resources faster, and lockdowns came faster,” Mr. Lemahieu said. “But to sustain that overtime was more difficult for such countries.”

Some major democratic nations, including the United States and the United Kingdom, failed to capitalize on such progress. They failed to impose sufficient strict health measures.

Mr. Lemahieu predicted that poorer countries would soon lose ground as they struggled to obtain COVID-19 vaccines for their citizens.