Israel has moved up another slot on the Bloomberg COVID Resilience Ranking to No. 4.
Now, the only country’s ranking above the Jewish state are Singapore, New Zealand and Australia, countries that acted earlier to stop the spread of the virus and managed to keep it in check over the last year, allowing for a higher quality of life for its citizens. Bloomberg looks at which countries have the lowest mortality rates and the highest testing and vaccination rates, as well as the lowest level of economic and social disruptions.
Also in the top 10 are Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Finland and Hong Kong.
However, regarding the index, Bloomberg warned: “If there’s one lesson from April, it’s that vaccination alone isn’t ending the pandemic.”
The report continues: “Though some places like Israel have seen marked reductions in their outbreaks thanks to early and widespread vaccination, experts caution against complacency that could still undo their progress.”
In Israel, life has largely returned to normal, with the government regularly reducing restrictions on the public and allowing more people to gather in open and closed spaces. Earlier this month, the Health Ministry lifted the ban on mask-wearing outdoors. It is slated to open its airports to small groups of vaccinated tourists by this time next month.
However, on Tuesday, the Health Ministry called on the government to roll out a set of new rules for travel to and from highly infected countries such as India and Brazil.
India dropped 10 places to No. 30 while Brazil plummeted to No. 53.
On the other hand, Singapore moved up to slot No. 1, overtaking New Zealand for the first time since the Resilience Ranking began.
“The tiny city-state has gotten locally-transmitted cases down to near zero thanks to border curbs and a strict quarantine program, allowing citizens to largely go about their everyday lives, even attending concerts and going on cruises,” Bloomberg reported. “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.”