S'pore best in world for 'Covid-19 resilience', surpassing New Zealand: Bloomberg

At the top.

Sulaiman Daud | April 27, 2021, 04:46 PM

Singapore has been rated the number one country in the world in Bloomberg's Covid-19 resilience rankings.

The Southeast Asian nation overtook New Zealand, which is now in second place, for the first time since the system started.

The ranking is updated every month and uses a range of social measures, including Covid-19 case rates, vaccination rates, community mobility, placement on the human development index, and GDP to assess which countries are most effectively containing Covid-19 cases, without overwhelming damage to their lifestyles or economy.

This data is used to calculate a final score, with Singapore scoring 79.7 and New Zealand scoring 79.6.

Vaccination rollout going well

According to an April 26 report, Singapore is succeeding in keeping community transmissions down to "near zero" thanks to strict border controls and a quarantine programme.

New Zealand also has similar measures, including quick lockdowns in response to possible community transmissions.

However, according to Bloomberg, Singapore has the edge because of the success of its vaccination programme:

"At the same time, Singapore has already administered vaccines equivalent to cover a fifth of its population, an aspect of pandemic control that other virus eliminators like New Zealand, Australia and Taiwan are lagging on."

This success has led to Singapore aiming for new milestones, such as an Air Travel Bubble with Hong Kong.

Currently, Singaporeans aged 45 and above can register for vaccination, with slots opening up for younger adults expected in June 2021.

New Zealand has been hitting its own targets for vaccination, and the government has pledged that vaccines will be available to all adults in July 2021.

For now, it has vaccinated just 4.5 per cent of its eligible population, according to The Guardian.

But vaccination alone, while critically important, cannot solve all of a country's problems in the fight against Covid-19.

Bloomberg noted that in countries like France and Chile, where the population has good access to vaccines, outbreaks have been occurring due to mutations of the virus, which may originate in other countries with poor supplies of vaccines.

Related story:

Top image from MOH's Facebook page.