The Economist: Pakistan ranked among top countries for handling Covid-19

Kaptaan

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In the global Normalcy Index measuring countries progress in recovering from covid-19 effects and return to normalcy Pakistan has been ranked third top in the world after Hong Kong and New Zealand by The Economist. Turkey is 13th on the list and India 48th.

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Covid-19 data​

The global normalcy index​

Is the world returning to pre-pandemic life? Find out with our interactive tracker​



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Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020 many have wondered when the world will return to “normal”. But whether things will ever go back to the way they were is unclear: remote working looks set to continue, for example, and going to the movies may never be as popular as it used to be.

The Economist has devised a “normalcy index” to track how behaviour has changed, and continues to change, because of the pandemic. Our index comprises eight indicators, split into three domains. The first grouping is transport and travel: public transport in big cities; the amount of traffic congestion in those same cities; and the number of international and domestic flights. The second looks at recreation and entertainment: how much time is spent outside the home; cinema box-office revenues (a proxy measure for cinema attendance); and attendance at professional sports events. The third is retailing and work: footfall in shops; and occupancy of offices (measured by workplace footfall in big cities).

Our index covers 50 of the world's largest economies that together account for 90% of global GDP and 76% of the world's population. Our aggregate measure is the population-weighted average of each country's score. The pre-pandemic level of activity is set at 100 for ease of comparison. The tracker is updated with new data once a week.

Full article here with detailed charts and infographics https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/tracking-the-return-to-normalcy-after-covid-19


PM Imran praises NCOC after Pakistan ranked among top countries for handling Covid-19

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Prime Minister Imran Khan has congratulated the NCOC, State Bank and the team of Ehsaas Programme after Pakistan ranks third on The Economist's global normalcy index. — Photo courtesy PM Imran's Instagram/File

Prime Minister Imran Khan congratulated the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) — the nerve centre of Pakistan's coronavirus response — the team of the Ehsaas Programme and the State Bank of Pakistan after The Economist ranked Pakistan among the best performing countries for handling the coronavirus pandemic.
The Economist's normalcy index tracks the progress of 50 countries' return to pre-pandemic life on the basis of eight indicators classified into three categories.
Each country is scored out of 100 — the benchmark score for the pre-pandemic level of activity — on the index, where Pakistan's current score is 84.4. This tracker is updated every week.
At present, the top-ranked country on the index is Hong Kong, with a score of 96.3, followed by New Zealand that has a score of 87.8. Pakistan is ranked third.

Sharing a screenshot of the index on Wednesday, Prime Minister Imran Khan tweeted: "Congratulations to NCOC members, Ehsaas team & State Bank of Pakistan for effective response to Covid-19 pandemic; and above all thanks to the mercy of Almighty Allah."



Among other countries, China is ranked 19th with a score of 72.9 and India — which has been struggling in face of the pandemic after a disastrous outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant — is ranked 48 with a score of 46.5.


South Korea and Colombia are at the bottom, each having an overall score of zero.


Science behind the ranking​


According to The Economist, the index "covers 50 of the world's largest economies that together account for 90 per cent of global GDP (gross domestic product) and 76 per cent of the world's population."


They are scored out of 100 on the basis of eight indicators, classified into three categories. The first category of transport and travel includes public transport in big cites, the extent of traffic congestion in these cities and the number of international and domestic flights.


Indicators such as the amount of time people spend outdoors, cinema and box-office revenues and attendance at sports events are clubbed together under the category of recreation and entertainment, and footfall in shops and occupancy of offices are grouped under the category of retailing and work.


The separate tracker for each indicator shows that Pakistan has shown significant improvement on the public transport indicator, where its current score is above 100. However, the country's score remains below 50 on the domestic and international flights indicator.


Its score on the indicator signifying cinema revenues has remained zero for most part of this year and the previous year. For the amount of time people spend outdoors, the country's score has remained close to 100. At present, Pakistan is ranked slightly above 100 on this indicator.


Pakistan has shown erratic but gradual improvement on the indicators of office occupancy and footfall in shops since March last year. The graph shows that its current score for office occupancy is above 100, after a dip in June, and the country's score is close to 120 on the retail indicator.


The country has not been scored for road traffic and sports attendance.


Uptick in positivity rate​


Meanwhile, Pakistan has witnessed a rise in daily cases in recent days.


According to the government's Covid-19 portal, the number of daily Covid-19 cases dropped from four digits to three digits on June 25. It remained at around 900 till June 27 and further fell to 735 on June 28.


Then the number of cases gradually started increasing and doubled in just one week. The positivity rate was less than 2pc in June but it has now crossed 3pc after a gap of 20 days.


According to the government's portal for tracking the spread of the disease in the country, the positivity rate was recorded as 3.28pc during the last 24 hours. The last time it had exceeded 3pc was on June 16 when it was recorded as 3.01pc.


During the last 24 hours, the country has reported 1,517 coronavirus cases and 17 deaths. The total number of cases has risen to 966,007 and the death toll is 22,469.


@Joe Shearer This confirms what we recently discussed.
 

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Prime Minister Imran Khan has congratulated the NCOC, State Bank and the team of Ehsaas Programme after Pakistan ranks third on The Economist's global normalcy index. — Photo courtesy PM Imran's Instagram/File

I know the guy in charge of the COVID program, and he is probably the best choice for this position that PMIK could have selected. This successful ranking is no surprise to me, since I knew he would do a stellar job from the get-go. Awesome!
 

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I know the guy in charge of the COVID program, and he is probably the best choice for this position that PMIK could have selected. This successful ranking is no surprise to me, since I knew he would do a stellar job from the get-go. Awesome!
Well, many lives have been saved because of this gent. If there is heaven this chap has certainly gained a key to it. Certainly more good has been achieved then all the prayers since Objective Resolution of 1949.
 

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I know the guy in charge of the COVID program, and he is probably the best choice for this position that PMIK could have selected. This successful ranking is no surprise to me, since I knew he would do a stellar job from the get-go. Awesome!

The NCOC just did one hell'va job
 

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The NCOC just did one hell'va job
Asad Umar is very competent person. Using the army was great idea. This made NCOC like a military campaign HQ and covid requires war footing to deal with or you wil have the disaster we saw in India.
 

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Good job especoally for Pakistan with a population of 200 million.

Imagine the size of the job they had to undertake.
 

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Asad Umar is very competent person. Using the army was great idea. This made NCOC like a military campaign HQ and covid requires war footing to deal with or you wil have the disaster we saw in India.

Covid is vicious and ruthless taking it like a military incident is the only way and Pakistan showchased that the more serious you take this thing the better you handle it.. Once the neighbour India was heavily hit while Pakistan was busying developing the army in to limit folks crossing over the border. I remember at one point 5-7 people got thru and it created public backlash

 
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Kaptaan

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Good job especoally for Pakistan with a population of 200 million.

Imagine the size of the job they had to undertake.
Our neighbours refuse to accept the figures coming out of Pakistan. But here is a fact. You can only bend figures so much. If Pakistan had a disaster like India with our rivers chocked with dead bodies, media images of people gasping and dying outside on the entrance to overwhelmed hospitals no amount of figure fudging or denial would hide reality. We had non of such situation. No hospital in Pakistan has thus far been overwhelmed. No doubt our population density is lower then India's and his helped but the credit goes to PMIK and his NCOC or National Command and Operation Centre.

This is literally a military style command centre with military, medical, logistics, adminstrative staff pulled from across the specialist spectrum headed by minister Asad Umar who reports directly to the PM.

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Kaptaan

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Let us just hope that this great performance also applies to the Delta variant.
Well, the Indian variant has already taken lead over all other variants so let us see how it goes. I know many will be secretly wishing that their contempt for Pakistan is manifested.


So they can take a *sigh* and say the usual dismmisives ....
 

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Well, the Indian variant has already taken lead over all other variants so let us see how it goes. I know many will be secretly wishing that their contempt for Pakistan is manifested.


So they can take a *sigh* and say the usual dismmisives ....

I am sure that the team that dealt with the previous variants will be able to deal with the Delta variant too.
 

Kaptaan

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I am sure that the team that dealt with the previous variants will be able to deal with the Delta variant too.
Hope so. The real solution is only with % of vaccinated and reaching herd immunity. There is sadly lot of rubbish being peddled about the vacciunes in Pakistan. The usual 'sazish' theories.
 

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Hope so. The real solution is only with % of vaccinated and reaching herd immunity. There is sadly lot of rubbish being peddled about the vacciunes in Pakistan. The usual 'sazish' theories.

What I find amazing, and in a majority of the world, is that this is the best of times and the worst of times for vaccines. We can create new and effective vaccines quickly as never before, and yet we have people who do not want to take them, as never before. Quite perplexing, TBH.
 

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