Which city responded best to the Covid pandemic? Here’s a ranking

DKA analyzed 72 cities and ranked the highest 50.

Lisbon, Portugal got here in at No. 50, with a rating of fifty.37 that was thwarted by a rocky vaccine rollout within the first half of 2021. Portugal now has one of many highest vaccination charges on the earth, with almost 86% of the nation’s inhabitants having acquired two doses, in keeping with the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Useful resource Middle.

Cities together with Istanbul, Johannesburg, Bangkok, New Delhi, Cairo, Mexico Metropolis and Baghdad have been analyzed, however didn’t make the highest 50 checklist.

Clearly, many individuals residing in municipalities that ranked excessive on DKA’s checklist will disagree with their metropolis’s high standing. Experiences of anger and confusion over Covid-19 security measures and vaccine mandates have led to large-scale protests in Europe and the U.S. and a disavowal of so-called “Zero Covid” methods in elements of Asia and Australia.

Whereas authorities satisfaction charges elevated in Seoul and Abu Dhabi, they plunged in 80% of the analyzed cities throughout the pandemic, in keeping with the report.

The common rating for all cities was 55.36 out of a attainable 100 factors, indicating “each metropolis has some room to enhance,” mentioned DKA Director Alexei Cresniov.

Cities that ranked excessive on the checklist tended to behave early and swiftly, mentioned Cresniov.

Nations with response plans in place resulting from latest well being crises — resembling Singapore, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates — have been higher ready, in keeping with the report. Italy, in distinction, had a pandemic plan however did not implement it, Cresniov mentioned.

Cities that already had — or that shortly developed — know-how associated to contract tracing, telemedicine and vaccination distribution ranked excessive on the checklist.

Metropolitan areas in international locations with authoritarian governments, or in locations that applied strict measures to fight the pandemic, additionally ranked excessive, although reaching a stability grew to become needed because the scenario advanced, mentioned Cresniov.

In “the later phases, the primary factor is the stability … between lockdown and the assets of your inhabitants,” he mentioned, including that lockdowns began failing as financial and psychological hurt elevated.

Lastly, populations that belief their native governments have fared higher within the combat towards the coronavirus, mentioned Cresniov.

That is obvious in Abu Dhabi in addition to in Asia typically, the place, he mentioned, “When the federal government mentioned there was a pandemic and ‘please individuals keep dwelling,’ individuals obeyed.”

Conversely, lack of belief hampered pandemic responses in Hong Kong, in keeping with the report, in addition to Russia and liberal democracies within the West, resembling america, Canada and plenty of European international locations, he mentioned.

The report additionally discovered that:

• Globally, the pandemic revealed poor coordination between nationwide governments and municipal authorities.
• No metropolis had the healthcare capability to assist huge surges in sickness brought on by the pandemic.

• Solely 10% of cities ready “well-thought-out plans” of financial assist for residents and enterprise. Tetiana Humeniuk, head of analytics at DKA, cited London, Berlin and Toronto as examples of cities which have these in place.

• Solely 25% of cities adopted measures to successfully and shortly “flatten the curve,” whereas solely 11% of cities completely examined and contract-traced. These measures, together with quarantines, “are the keys to preventing a pandemic,” in keeping with the report, which acknowledged that contract-tracing apps are controversial, however “this technique proved itself.”  

• Solely 17% of cities have a radical post-Covid technique, in keeping with the examine.        
• Nations world wide responded extra individually than collectively to the pandemic, in keeping with the report.