The Overseas Situation Report Friday 1 October 2021
by Mike Evans
“No matter how many mistakes you make or how slow you progress, you’re still way ahead of everyone who isn’t trying.”
– Tony Robbins
In this report we take a look at the Bloomberg Covid Resilience Ranking system and see what are the best and worst countries to be in with Covid 19.
The Covid Resilience Ranking is a monthly snapshot of where the virus is being handled the most effectively with the least social and economic upheaval. Compiled using 12 data indicators that span virus containment, the quality of healthcare, vaccination coverage, overall mortality and progress toward restarting travel and easing border curbs, the Ranking captures which of the world’s biggest 53 economies are responding best—and worst—to the same once-in-a-generation threat.
The new Delta variant has defined the way we live with the virus for many across the world, places that stayed resilient amid the variant’s onslaught providing a new model for how the world emerges from the pandemic.
In September, European nations dominated the top rungs of Bloomberg’s Covid Resilience Ranking for a third month, and we have a new No. 1—Ireland has taken pole position from Norway after steadily climbing the ranks from the start of 2021, when it had the worst outbreak in the world. In its monthly report published on Tuesday the news agency noted Ireland had been “steadily climbing” the rankings since the beginning of the year when it had experienced the worst outbreak in the world.
It noted a “startling turnaround” and national vaccination rates among the highest globally. Ireland took the top position from Norway, while European countries remain dominant in the higher rankings.
“Even as the peak summer travel season unfolded alongside delta’s spread, Ireland and places like Spain, the Netherlands and Finland held down serious illness and deaths through pioneering moves to largely limit quarantine-free entry to immunised people,” the report said.
“Bestowing more domestic freedoms on the inoculated helped boost vaccination levels to some of the highest in the world – over 90 per cent of Ireland’s adult population has received two shots – while allowing social activity to resume safely.”
Responding in a social media post, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the result was down to the hard work of the Health Service Executive (HSE) and the Irish public.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said the same resilience would see Ireland on a safe path to recovery coming into the autumn.
It pulled off the startling turnaround with a strategy used Europe-wide. Even as the peak summer travel season unfolded alongside delta’s spread, Ireland and places like Spain, the Netherlands and Finland held down serious illness and deaths through pioneering moves to largely limit quarantine-free entry to immunized people. Bestowing more domestic freedoms on the inoculated helped boost vaccination levels to some of the highest in the world—over 90% of Ireland’s adult population has received two shots—while allowing social activity to resume safely.
The country that was at the top of the chart, Norway, has seen riots in the past week following the lifting of all covid restrictions. The Norwegian government announced on Friday that most of the remaining coronavirus restrictions would be scrapped from Saturday and that life would return to normal.
The move included the lifting of social distancing rules and capacity limits on businesses, as well as the reopening of nightclubs. The unexpected announcement by prime minister Erna Solberg late on Friday afternoon took many Norwegians by surprise and led to chaotic scenes in the capital Oslo and elsewhere in the country on Saturday.
Rowdy celebrations across Norway by hundreds of citizens started on Saturday afternoon and lasted until the early hours of Sunday. Police said unrest was reported in several places, including in the southern city of Bergen and the central city of Trondheim, while the situation was worst in Oslo. Police in Norway registered at least 50 fights and disturbances during the course of the night.
Long queues were seen outside Oslo’s nightclubs, bars and restaurants late on Saturday. Neither vaccination status certificates nor negative test results for Covid-19 were required to enter such venues in Norway.
“That’s exactly what I predicted would happen,” according to one angry Oslo nightclub manager.“It was a life-threatening situation in the city because they [the government] didn’t give us at least a few days’ advance notice. This was a dangerous situation as police said all places were packed.”
Among other incidents, Norwegian media reported that police received an alert about a man carrying a machete on a bus in Oslo and people fainted while waiting to get into pubs in Trondheim.
“There was a significantly greater workload [on Saturday] than during the summer. There were a lot of people out already in the afternoon and it continued during the night,” Oslo police spokesman Rune Hekkelstrand told the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK.
Denmark moved up six spots into the top five as high vaccination coverage enables it to lift restrictions while its outbreak is contained.
On the 10th September Denmark became the first European country to lift all covid restrictions. For residents in Denmark, it’s a tantalizing return to pre-pandemic times. As the last of the mask restrictions fell, for example, ticket controllers in commuter trains cheerfully informed masked travellers they could take off their face coverings. Those who were tourists opted to keep them on anyway, as one POLITICO reporter recently witnessed. Meanwhile, at Glyptoteket, an art museum in central Copenhagen, visitors crammed in to take advantage of the weekly admission-free day, with minimal masking and little regard for social distancing. Down the street, stages and stalls were preparing for revelers coming in for the World Pride gathering of activists and allies.
Along with the successful vaccine rollout, experts have pointed to high levels of trust in authorities. Almost three-quarters of adults are fully vaccinated and COVID-19 hospitalization rates are low.
In contrast, the delta variant has left the U.S. reeling. The world’s biggest economy dropped three spots to No. 28 in September as unfettered normalization, regardless of vaccination status, drove a surge in cases and deaths. Inoculation has hit a wall, with places that started shots later than the U.S. now overtaking it.
Southeast Asian economies continue to populate the Ranking’s bottom rungs in September, with Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines the last five. While the region’s outbreak may have peaked, their export-reliant economies are still struggling from the hit.
Once the gold standard for virus containment, the Asia-Pacific is faltering in the era of vaccination. Not only are their strict measures less effective in the face of delta, former top rankers in the region are also grappling with how to reopen after such a long period of isolationist border curbs.
No. 1 at the Ranking’s inception last November, New Zealand fell nine spots from August to No. 38. A delta incursion after months virus-free has left the country in varying degrees of lockdown, still seeking to stamp out infections as it strives to boost vaccination levels. Singapore, which is trying to pivot from a Covid Zero approach to a vaccine-led reopening, fell 11 rungs as what is increasingly apparent is that the pandemic is far from over—for some more than others.
Called “a shame on all humanity” by World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, vaccine inequality persists, confining developing economies to the bottom half of the Ranking. With so many countries barely inoculated, the risk of another destructive variant emerging has never been higher, just as rich nations grapple with waning immunity from the first round of shots.
Over the month of September Spain jumped eight places to No. 2 as its infection rate fell to the lowest level in more than a year.
Canada advanced 14 rungs, while the U.K. climbed six places to No. 16 after both nations eased travel curbs for fully vaccinated people.
Bangladesh edged up five notches as the country recorded its lowest number of daily deaths in nearly four months and schools reopened after being shut for more than 500 days.
What happens in one month can all change in the next month so we can hope that these new openings of countries don’t end up having to reimpose restrictions if the variant takes another hold.
Until the next time Stay Safe.
Total Cases Worldwide – 234,208,789
Total Deaths Worldwide – 4,790,934
Total Recovered Worldwide – 211,024,704
Total Active Cases Worldwide – 18,393,151 (7.8 % of the total cases)
Total Closed Cases Worldwide – 215,815,638
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
Other Resources:
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-resilience-ranking/#notable-movers
https://www.politico.eu/article/denmark-first-eu-lift-coronavirus-restrictions/