Flowing to the global health crisis which is far from over, some countries have reacted better than others. One year after the start of the pandemic, it is Brazil that appears to be the country that has managed the Covid-19 pandemic the most badly, while New Zealand is the best student on the planet, according to “the Index Covid performance, ”a study published last week by an Australian think tank. The Lowy Institute in Sydney has evaluated nearly a hundred countries (including 20 African, Editor’s note) on the basis of six criteria, including confirmed cases of the new coronavirus, deaths and screening devices. “These indicators show to what extent countries have managed the pandemic well or badly”, according to the press release from this independent body. In contrast, China – where the virus first appeared – is not included in this ranking due to a lack of published data on the tests, according to the Think Tank. For its part, Beijing has tried to promote its good management of the pandemic by thus trying to demonstrate the effectiveness of its authoritarian system in relation to the many democracies hard hit by Covid-19. Countries with less than 10 million inhabitants seem to have had an advantage. What about the African continent?
Rwanda, a good student
Like New Zealand, some African states acted very hard and very early on by closing borders, taking very strict containment or restriction measures. Result: Rwanda, Togo or Tunisia figure prominently in the final ranking… far ahead of South Africa, and sometimes ahead of many more developed countries. Rwanda, sixth in the ranking, with a score of 80.8, can thus boast of being among the top ten countries which provided the best responses. The small East African country is closely followed by Togo (72.8), and Tunisia (66.7), which is yet experiencing an outbreak of cases and deaths, besides its vaccination campaign has not started yet. But, there is a logical explanation for this positioning, indeed, the Lowy ranking is based on figures stopped on January 9, Tunisia still appeared as a model. Mozambique (60.2) and Malawi (60.2) bring up the rear of this African Top 5.
At the other end of the ranking, in last place, is South Africa, the most industrialized country but also the most affected on the continent. It occupies the 82e world rank for an index of 25.4. “In general, countries with smaller populations, cohesive societies and competent institutions are favored to deal with a global crisis such as a pandemic,” the report says. But nothing to boast about, according to the Lowy Institute, no political system comes out victorious in terms of managing the pandemic and especially not those led by an authoritarian power. “Some countries managed it better than others, but most countries stood out only for their poor performance,” according to the study.
Africa is doing better than some rich countries
Comparison is not right, but Africa has nothing to be ashamed of, since in this same ranking, we find many much richer countries in a lower position. “Many rich countries were quickly overwhelmed when the virus emerged, and the large number of air links facilitated its transmission. By comparison, authorities in many developing countries have had a little more time to take the necessary measures, which for the most part did not require significant technical capacity. Brazil therefore comes at the bottom of the rankings, closely followed by Mexico, Colombia, Iran and the United States. Brazil has more than 220,000 deaths attributed to Covid-19, just behind the United States. For much of last year, the leaders of these two most populous countries on the American continent had played down the threat, mocked the wearing of masks, opposed containment and contracted the virus themselves. Since the start of the pandemic, more than 100 million cases have been recorded and 2.16 million people have died from the new coronavirus.
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