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New Zealand's Response To The Coronavirus Rated The Best In The World

New Zealand's Response To The Coronavirus Rated The Best In The World

Jacinda Ardern has been praised for her 'swift' and 'decisive' action that helped avoid a large infection and death rate.

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

New Zealand's response to the coronavirus pandemic has been rated the best in the world.

According to the new Bloomberg Covid resilience ranking, the small island nation won the poll based on a simple question as well as 10 key components.

Voters were asked 'where has the virus been handled most effectively with the least amount of disruption to business and society?'.

In news that should shock no one, New Zealand won the most amount of ballots out of 53 countries with economies of more than $200 billion.

The report said: "Early on, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's Government said it would target 'elimination' of the virus, pouring resources into testing, contact tracing and a centralised quarantine strategy to snuff out local transmission.

PA

"Having largely achieved it, New Zealanders are basically living in a world without Covid. The nation has seen just a handful of infections in the community in recent months, and live music and large scale social events are back on.

"The small island nation locked down on March 26 before a single Covid-related death had occurred, shutting its borders despite the economy's heavy reliance on tourism.

"Though its tourism industries are suffering, New Zealand is also well positioned for a vaccine with two supply deals in place, including one for the shot developed by Pfizer Inc. and Germany's BioNTech SE."

The country was praised for its 'swift' and 'decisive' action that helped avoid a large infection and death rate.

New Zealand has recorded just 2,031 cases and 25 deaths, giving it a resilience score of 85.4. Even though they have a population of 4.8 million, it's an incredibly low number of infections and deaths as a result of Covid-19.

PA

Coming in second in the Bloomberg Covid resilience ranking was Japan on 85 points, Taiwan on 82.9 and South Korea on 82.3.

While Taiwan arguably had fewer cases compared to the population, it lost to New Zealand because of its lower universal healthcare coverage and access to vaccines. After fourth place was Finland (82), Norway (81.6) and Australia (81.2).

Unsurprisingly, with millions of cases and hundreds of thousands of deaths, the United States came in 16th. Its ranking was saved thanks to the country's access to vaccines.

The UK was even worse and came in 28th with a score of 61.5. The lowest of the 53 countries on the list was Mexico with a score of just 37.6.

Jacinda Ardern was elected for a second term as Prime Minister, with many looking at her handling of the coronavirus pandemic as evidence she can weather any storm.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: News