Bangladesh tops COVID recovery list in South Asia: Nikkei

In South Asia, Bangladesh tops the list of the countries that have turned around after overcoming the pandemic. According to the Japanese media Nikkei, Bangladesh is on the top of the Asia's Covid-19 recovery index in South Asia.

The index assesses countries and regions on infection management, vaccine rollouts and social mobility. The higher the ranking, the closer a place is to recovery -- with low infections, higher inoculation rates and less-strict social distancing measures.

The overall situation of Covid-19 in the country was not under control in months back. But due to the timely steps of the government, the situation has changed and it is far better than that of many other countries of the world.

The government of Sheikh Hasina has ensured mass vaccination, social awareness, corona dedicated hospital facility, telemedicine service, rapid corona test facility, social distancing and other health guidelines to curb the infections and deaths in the country.

With an improvement by 48 steps compared to the previous index Bangladesh ranks now 26th out of 121 countries in the index.

Meanwhile, Pakistan ranks second after Bangladesh in the Nikkei Asia Covid-19 Recovery Index. The country is in the 33rd position while India, one of the largest economies, ranks 40th. Following India, Nepal’s position is 44 and Sri Lanka’s is in 61 in the index. Afghanistan is in the 97th position in the bottom rank.

Bangladesh is at the top among the South Asian countries with 60 out of 90 scores. Pakistan is in the second place in this region after Bangladesh. The country got a score of 58.5 point.

Malta is at the top of this index with the highest score of 73 globally. It is followed by Chile and Bahrain in second place with same score of 72 points, the United Arab Emirates in fourth place (71 points) and Saudi Arabia (70.5 points) in fifth place.

Nikkei Asia has been publishing this index of the Covid-19 pandemic since last July. Although China has been at the top of the index since then, the country's position now has declined by nine steps in September. The Philippines is also at the bottom of the index (121st) with a score of 30.5 points. It is followed by Laos (120th), Gabon (119th), Vietnam (118th) and Barbados and Angola jointly 116th.

Last month, Bangladesh raised five places to 39th out of 53 countries in the US media Bloomberg’s Covid Tolerance Index.

Prof Dr Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam, Director General (Health) of DGHS told Bangladesh Post, “The Covid-19 situation across the country has improved due to the timely measures adopted by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Successful vaccination programme and increased awareness among people have been ensured.”

He also said, “The Covid-19 situation has improved significantly in the last couple of weeks. The government’s speedy vaccination programmes, relentless services of doctors and nurses and awareness of people have made it possible.”

The current positivity rate of Covid-19 is below five percent which the World Health Organization (WHO) considers a pandemic to be under control if the infection rate remains below five percent for two consecutive weeks.