The Covid Resilience Ranking
The Best and Worst Places to Be in a World Divided Over Covid
Three years into the worst pandemic in a generation, the world is split in its response to Covid-19. While restrictions are falling as most countries embrace living with the virus, China’s zero-tolerance stance makes it an important holdout.
Places that are normalizing life alongside the coronavirus lead Bloomberg’s Covid Resilience Ranking in April, with Norway ranked No. 1 for a second month.
The nation is among a growing group that no longer have Covid-related travel curbs in place, and has even scrapped a requirement to self-isolate after a positive result. Ireland and the United Arab Emirates are second and third in our monthly analysis of where the pandemic is being handled best, with the least social and economic disruption.
The U.S. falls six spots to No. 30 and the U.K. drops two rungs to No. 12 in April, both weighed down by ongoing fatalities—their Covid Mortality Rate scores are among the worst of developed economies.
Covid Resilience Ranking
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Hong Kong comes in last among the 53 economies ranked for a second month as the city continues to see deaths from its worst Covid outbreak ever. Though the daily caseload has fallen to three digits from a peak of 76,000 in March, and some travel and social-distancing restrictions have been eased, Hong Kong remains largely isolated from the world, with quarantines still in place.
China falls three spots to No. 51 as it struggles to deploy a playbook that successfully stamped out Covid at the beginning of the pandemic on the more contagious omicron variant. It’s also grappling with a fatigued population, with Shanghai in a protracted lockdown that’s seen protests and food shortages, and the capital Beijing on the cusp of tighter curbs.
Economists have slashed growth forecasts for the world’s second-largest economy, while Community Mobility has plunged as social and business activity slows. China’s continued adherence to the Covid Zero approach despite omicron’s transmissibility has triggered stricter mitigation measures as infections keep spreading, making China’s Lockdown Severity score the worst among the 53 places ranked.
The two places were among the best performers in the monthly Ranking for most of 2021, and their plunge this year reflects how the elimination approach has deteriorated in its ability to limit social and economic disruption.
Russia, at No. 52, is weighed down by low Flight Capacity and the poorest 2022 GDP growth outlook in the Ranking—both largely due to its invasion of Ukraine.
Since November 2020, the Covid Resilience Ranking has provided a monthly snapshot of where the pandemic is being handled the most effectively with the least upheaval to people and business. Drawing on 11 data indicators spanning virus containment, quality of healthcare, vaccination coverage, overall mortality and progress toward restarting international travel, it captures how the world’s biggest economies are responding to the same once-in-a-generation threat.
Read about the methodology behind the Covid Resilience Ranking
Riding Out the Pandemic
Sweden and Singapore rose the most in April after removing travel restrictions, boosting their scores on the Vaccinated Travel Routes measure, as well as the Lockdown Severity and Community Mobility metrics. Sweden jumped 17 spots to No. 5, while Singapore scaled 17 rungs to No. 9.
France saw the biggest drop, falling 13 rungs to No. 18. The country experienced a surge in Covid cases which peaked in April, driven by the omicron sub-variant BA.2.