Decisive, swift action against Covid-19 has led New Zealand to be ranked as the best place in the world to be during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The top ranking comes from a new Bloomberg Covid resilience report which sought to find where the virus has been handled most effectively.
It placed New Zealand above 53 other countries by scoring economies of more than $200 billion on 10 key metrics based around how the pandemic has affected each country.
“New Zealanders are basically living in a world without Covid,” the report says, attributing success to the rapid response of the New Zealand government.
“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.
“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.”
It says although New Zealand’s tourism industries are suffering, the country is well-positioned for a vaccine with two supply deals in place.
Japan and Taiwan also emerged as top performers.
Japan placed second with just 331 serious cases of Covid-19 in a population of more than 120 million people.
According to the Bloomberg report, Japan was praised for avoiding deaths while having the oldest population in the world, as well as reaching four vaccine deals.
In third place is Taiwan which has gone more than 200 days without any cases transmitted locally.
“Much like New Zealand, life has largely reverted to normal, though borders remain shut.”
Taiwan was praised for implementing apps tracing where people with Covid-19 have visited and giving informations on where to get face masks.
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