Argentina: worst country to stay in during pandemic, according to Bloomberg
The COVID-19 resilience ranking published by Bloomberg, which reflects how 53 economies are coping with the coronavirus, shows that Argentina continues to be the least recommended country to be in during the pandemic, while the United States is the best coping with the crisis.
Since November 2020, the ranking analyses the management of the health contingency, tracking the best and worst places to stay during the COVID-19 pandemic. To do so, it uses various data related to the epidemiological situation, quality of life and the progress of border reopenings, mainly taking into account normalisation in each country, "almost a year and a half after the pandemic, the best and worst places to be in the COVID-19 era are increasingly defined by one thing: normalisation," Bloomberg said.
The ranking examines the percentage of people vaccinated, the rate of deaths and the average number of cases. The reopening of tourism and the freedom of vaccinated people have been added as points to be assessed.
Argentina has been sliding down the rankings since April, dropping seven places to 51st, due to an excessive increase in positive cases of 29%, which was the highest of all the countries analysed. But, in the period between May and June, the Argentine country finally reached the last position, surpassed by the Philippines, Malaysia, and India.
According to data analysed by Bloomberg, Argentina has the highest average number of positive coronavirus cases in a month per capita, with 1,615 infections per 100,000 people.
The Bloomberg ranking places the United States as the best country for dealing with the pandemic. This position was recently achieved after overtaking New Zealand as the top-ranked nation. Switzerland and Israel follow, rounding out the top four nations.
The rise of the US is due to its successful vaccination plan, where at least 53.7% of the population has already received at least one dose of COVID-19. Bloomberg justifies its decision on the grounds that the US has become a country "dominated by highly effective messenger RNA injections, which stopped what was once the world's worst outbreak".
The US has been characterised as one of the countries to return to normality, which has helped it reach the top of Bloomberg's ranking. It is currently the nation with "high vaccinations, a waning outbreak, flight capacity approaching full recovery and few travel restrictions for vaccinated people," according to Bloomberg.
At the top of the ranking are European nations such as Switzerland, France and Spain because of their open borders to receive already vaccinated tourists and the progressive decline in the level of infection thanks to the progress of vaccination.
On the other hand, the countries of Asia and the Pacific have lost their throne at the top of the rankings, a position they have held practically since the ranking was created in 2020.
In this region, countries such as Singapore and Australia stand out, which in this new update have lost their positions due to the border restrictions they have implemented and the difficult management of small outbreaks. "Sydney was placed under a two-week blockade after dozens of locally transmitted infections were detected, and Australians have not been allowed to leave the country since March last year," Bloomberg noted.
Latin American economies, meanwhile, are at the bottom of the rankings, along with the Philippines and India, spurred by recent waves of outbreaks due to the emergence of new variants of COVID-19 and a slow and uneven vaccination process.
Latin America Coordinator: José Antonio Sierra.
