The response to the COVID-19 pandemic has varied wildly across the world. While some nations have handled the crisis with aplomb and largely escaped the ravages of the disease, others have bungled their management of the virus and been hit hard. Starting with the best, click or scroll through to see how 31 major countries have fared, including the UK, US, Canada and Australia, based on the Lowy Institute's COVID Performance Index, which uses six indicators, from confirmed cases and deaths to tests per 1,000 people, to rank the pandemic response of 98 nations.
Coronavirus case and death numbers provided by Johns Hopkins University, and are accurate as of 5 February. China was not ranked by the Lowy Institute due to lack of accurate testing data.
New Zealand's handling of the crisis has been exemplary. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's government acted swiftly and stringently in the crucial early days and, even though the country had reported just a few cases, international borders were closed on 19 March and a tough six-week nationwide lockdown kicked in days later. A sophisticated testing and contact-tracing programme was rapidly deployed and New Zealand has been virtually COVID-free since 8 June, although it had its first case outside of a quarantine facility in months reported on 24 January this year. To date New Zealand has recorded just 2,315 cases and 25 deaths during the entire pandemic.
Taiwan's initial response was even faster. Due to its proximity to China, where coronavirus was first detected in December 2019, the country set up border restrictions as early as 31 December and has been scrupulous screening arrivals and quarantining suspected cases. Protocols put in place following the early 2000s SARS outbreak have greatly helped, as have an excellent hi-tech test and trace regime and the attitude of the public, who have been all too willing to wear masks and stick to disease-prevention rules. As a result, no nationwide lockdown has ever been imposed, local transmission has pretty much been eliminated and, to date, only 919 cases and nine deaths have been reported.
Interestingly, the countries that have handled the pandemic most effectively are nearly all island nations, which have easier to control borders than countries with land frontiers. Smaller nations have also tended to fare better. Cyprus is Europe's best performer. The country shut its borders on 15 March when only 33 cases had been detected and initiated a national lockdown a week and a half later. These prompt actions have helped keep cases relatively low at 31,379 and the death toll at just 208.
Europe's next best performer is also an island nation with a small population. Iceland brought in border restrictions on 20 March, but it was the country's enviable test, trace and isolate strategy that really made a difference in those critical early days. At one point last year Iceland boasted the world's highest ratio of tests per capita. Restrictions were introduced during the second wave in autumn, but a nationwide lockdown has never been deemed necessary, with Iceland recording just 6,016 cases and 29 deaths to date.
By and large the countries of the Asia-Pacific region have been the most successful at managing the pandemic. Australia, which like the other best-performing nations has zero land frontiers, closed its borders on 20 March and locked down early too. The government has followed the advice of scientists, containing subsequent sporadic outbreaks by ordering local lockdowns. This is reflected in the nation's COVID stats, which show just 28,842 cases and 909 deaths so far.
Well-versed at coping with infectious disease outbreaks following its experience with SARS in the early 2000s, Singapore went all out in the early days of the pandemic, sealing its borders on 20 March, imposing a 'circuit breaker' partial lockdown not long after and rolling out an aggressive testing and contact-tracing programme when other countries were still figuring out theirs. Apart from several isolated clusters, the disease has been kept at bay in the city-state, which has reported only 59,624 cases and 29 deaths and, together with New Zealand, Singapore has the lowest death rate in our round-up.
The Finnish government's speedy early response, along with its app-based contact-tracing system, have been instrumental in keeping infection and mortality rates in the country low, with 46,493 cases and 688 deaths recorded since the beginning of the pandemic. A two-month nationwide lockdown began on 16 March and borders were closed several days later, while much of the population has downloaded and used the official Koronavilkku (which translates as Corona Flash) track and trace app.
Finland's neighbour Norway has reported similarly low infection and mortality rates. To date, 64,212 cases and 582 deaths have been confirmed in the country. Much of the state's success in battling the virus and keeping mortality rates low has come down to its vigorous testing programme, which was rolled out before the pandemic had a chance to gain a foothold in the country.
Denmark has won plaudits for its handling of the pandemic, particularly in the early days when it acted without hesitation to halt the spread of coronavirus, though the cull of 17 million mink, including healthy animals, in November to eradicate a potentially dangerous mutation was sharply criticised. The country's food and agriculture minister was forced to resign when the order to kill the mink was declared illegal. Things got worse when mink buried in shallow graves started to rise to the surface. On a more positive note, mass testing has been especially thorough in the country, which has one of the highest rates in Europe, and the vaccine rollout has been rapid. Needless to say, this has translated to low mortality and death rates. So far, 201,020 people in Denmark have fallen ill with the virus and 2,185 have died as a result.
Coming down hard and fast on the virus has paid dividends for the UAE. Early on, the authorities introduced strict restrictions including lockdowns and curfews enforced by punishing fines, and launched a national disinfection programme. More recently, the Emirati authorities pulled off the second-fastest vaccine rollout in the world. While Dubai has seen a flare-up in infections of late, the country soon instated travel restrictions on certain routes including flights to South Africa, and the number of people who have caught the virus has been fairly low across the Emirates. So far there have been 316,875 recorded cases and 888 deaths.
In contrast to many other nations around the world, Sweden has taken a far more laissez-faire approach in its handling of COVID as it took a herd immunity approach early on in the global crisis. So far, no lockdown has been mandated and other disease-prevention measures such as mask-wearing were even discouraged in the early days. As the death rate has climbed, Sweden's actions have come under scrutiny, with even the country's king voicing his concerns. To date, as many as 584,674 people in the country have been infected and 12,028 have died.
The Austrian authorities made some big mistakes early on in the pandemic, including the failure to shut down ski resorts linked to super-spreader events, but its response after that included a nationwide lockdown and a mass testing programme, though infections soared for a time in the autumn. In total, 419,801 cases and 7,936 deaths have been recorded in the country.
Ireland was congratulated by the World Health Organization for its quick response to the pandemic. The country brought in strict social distancing measures earlier than many, which helped to flatten the curve during the initial stages of the crisis. More recently, however, cases have skyrocketed and, for a period in January, Ireland had the highest infection rate in the world. The number of COVID cases so far in the country totals 200,744, with 3,586 deaths attributed to the disease.
Japan, like Sweden, has opted for a less restrictive approach to managing the pandemic. The government has resisted imposing a mandatory lockdown and eschewed mass testing for a cluster-focused approach, but a recent surge in cases has prompted the authorities to tighten border controls. Nevertheless, even though the nation has the highest amount of older people per capita in the world, infection and mortality rates have remained remarkably low, with 399,492 cases and 6,172 deaths recorded, which some experts have partly put down to the country's 'tight' culture, where citizens tend to abide by rules more strictly.
A study published recently in The Lancet Planetary Health journal found that countries with 'tight' cultures have reported fewer COVID cases and deaths than those with 'loose' cultures that have a more relaxed attitude to rule-breaking. The richest country in Africa, it's thought that Nigeria's 'tight' culture has helped it weather the crisis, as well as an early lockdown, and protocols put in place that were learned from the 2014 Ebola outbreak. To date, 136,030 cases and 1,632 deaths have been reported.
Germany was admired for its handling of the pandemic during the early stages, but the government has struggled to cope with the second and third waves, with the tough lockdown that was introduced in December still ongoing. Compounding the crisis is the nation's painfully slow vaccine rollout. So far, 2,265,536 cases and 60,634 deaths have been recorded in the country.
Italy was the first country outside China to experience a major COVID-19 outbreak and the first in Europe to impose a national lockdown, but critics say implementing the countrywide restrictions earlier could have prevented the health service from being overwhelmed and reduced the death toll considerably. Around 500 family members of coronavirus victims are suing the government for €100 million ($120m/£88m) in damages for its alleged negligence during the crisis, and Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte resigned in January over his handling of the second wave. To date, the country has confirmed 2,597,446 cases and 90,241 deaths.
The Americas are the continents worst affected by the pandemic and while Canada has performed much better than its neighbour to the south, the country's COVID-19 response has been nothing to brag about. Justin Trudeau's government dragged its feet during the decisive early days and was unprepared for the second wave when testing and tracing systems were swamped. So far, 798,394 cases and 20,486 deaths have been recorded by the country's authorities.
Though Israel acted early to prevent transmission of coronavirus, initiating a national lockdown and border controls in March, cases mushroomed over the summer and the country was the first in the world to introduce a second lockdown. A third lockdown was imposed in late December. The authorities have, however, fast tracked the vaccine rollout, which is the quickest in the world. All in all, Israel has recorded 675,618 cases and 5,001 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
The Portuguese government was lauded for its rapid response to the virus last spring, but the country was hit hard by the second wave, which struck in the autumn. The third wave has been even worse. In late January, the country reported the world's highest seven-day average COVID-19 infection rate but has, like several other EU nations, been slow to roll out its vaccination programme, despite this grim statistic. At the time of writing, the number of cases recorded totals 748,858 and the death toll stands at 13,482.
Likewise, the Saudi authorities' handling of the first wave of the virus was a success, and the measures they decided upon, from the suspension of the Hajj to strict curfews, flattened the curve. However, the second wave has been a lot more challenging and the government, which to date has recorded 369,248 COVID-19 cases and 6,389 deaths, is having a difficult time getting people to adhere to precautions.
While its fast vaccine rollout has been praised, with more than 10 million Britons having already received their first dose, the UK government was initially slow to react to coronavirus, ordering the population into lockdown later than many other countries. This, together with other factors such as a shambolic contact-tracing system, the failure to close country borders or screen arrivals effectively, and unclear messaging, have resulted in the UK having the second-highest COVID mortality rate per 100,000 people in our round-up. To date, 3,903,706 people in the nation have been infected and 110,462 have died.
Russia was hit by COVID-19 later than many other nations but squandered its precious headstart. Outside of Moscow, where the city's mayor had prioritised preparing for the pandemic, the response has been woefully inadequate, though the country has brought the world the Sputnik V vaccine, which has 92% efficacy according to late stage trial results. As it stands now, Russia has reported the fifth highest number of cases in the world at 3,874,830, while 74,005 deaths have been recorded.
The Spanish authorities' initial coronavirus response was weak to say the least. Delays in imposing a nationwide lockdown and a healthcare system unprepared for a pandemic, combined with factors such as high population density in cities and an extremely sociable culture, turned the country into a COVID-19 hotspot. The second and third waves have also been severe in Spain, which has so far recorded 2,913,425 infections and 60,802 deaths.
The South African government acted fast and imposed one of the world's strictest lockdowns back in March when the country had recorded just 400 cases, but in an effort to kick-start the economy it made the fatal mistake of lifting the blanket restrictions, which led to an explosion in the number of cases and deaths, with the nation's health system barely able to cope. The highly infectious COVID-19 variant that emerged in the country is only making matters worse. Since the start of the pandemic, a total of 1,466,767 cases and 45,605 deaths have been confirmed.
India's initial response to the pandemic was poor and while the country did eventually impose a nationwide lockdown, little was done to shore up the health system, and shortages of hospital beds, test kits and PPE were rife. The government is now rolling out the world's biggest vaccination drive. India has reported the second highest number of COVID-19 cases in the world at 10,802,591, but the death toll of 154,823 is lower than might be expected, partly because of the country's young population.
The lowest-scoring nation in our round-up, the US has been widely lambasted for its handling of the pandemic. Only Iran, Colombia, Mexico and Brazil have performed worse. The Trump administration delayed the introduction of social distancing measures and mass testing, politicised the wearing of masks and even promoted quack cures during press conferences. As a consequence, America has recorded a staggering 26,676,957 COVID-19 cases and 455,738 deaths, more than any other country. Now that Joe Biden is in the White House he has made the promise of securing 100 million vaccines for its immunisation programme in his first 100 days in office. He beat his own target within a week of his inauguration when he authorised the purchase of 100 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and 100 million doses of the Moderna vaccine to fight vaccine supply shortages.
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