Singapore overtakes NZ to top ranking of world’s best place to be amid Covid-19

SINGAPORE — With locally-transmitted Covid-19 infections down to single digits and one of the highest vaccination rates in Asia, Singapore has overtaken New Zealand to top Bloomberg’s Covid Resilience Ranking in April.

The monthly ranking measures the best and worst places to be amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Singapore was in second place in March while New Zealand had been at the top spot since the ranking started in November 2020.

WHAT IS BLOOMBERG’S COVID RESILIENCE RANKING?

• Bloomberg uses 10 data indicators to measure how effective the world’s largest 53 economies are at containing the virus, with the least social and economic disruption

• These indicators are compiled by the news agency or come from reputable third-party organisations

• Each data metric is scored between 0 (worst performance) and 100 (best performance), and the final score is the average across all 10 indicators

• Some of the data indicators are: The number of cases in a month out of 100,000 people, the monthly fatality rate, the number of deaths out of one million people, the positive test rate and people covered by vaccines

WHAT WAS SINGAPORE’S RANKING BEFORE?

• November 2020: 11th

• December 2020: 5th

• January 2021: 2nd

• February 2021: 3rd

• March 2021: 2nd

WHY IS SINGAPORE TOP?

According to Bloomberg, the city-state has gotten locally-transmitted cases down to “near-zero” as a result of border restrictions and a strict quarantine programme.

Singapore has also administered vaccines to cover a fifth of its population. Bloomberg said this is one aspect of pandemic control other jurisdictions are lagging in despite having successfully contained the virus.

These places include New Zealand, Australia and Taiwan.

Bloomberg said success in containing Covid-19 seems to also rely on governments being able to foster a high degree of trust and societal compliance among its population.

Investing in public health infrastructure has also helped Singapore clinch the top spot, as mask-wearing is mandatory and contact tracing is commonplace.

“Undervalued in many places before 2020, systems for contact tracing, effective testing and health education bolstered the top performers, helping socialise hand-washing and the wearing of face masks,” read the Bloomberg report.

TOP 10 JURISDICTIONS

• Singapore

• New Zealand

• Australia

• Israel

• Taiwan

• South Korea

• Japan

• United Arab Emirates

• Finland

• Hong Kong