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The Covid-19 Global Response Index

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THE COVID-19 GLOBAL RESPONSE INDEX

FROM FP ANALYTICS: A COUNTRY-BY-COUNTRY ASSESSMENT OF GOVERNMENT RESPONSES TO
THE PANDEMIC.

Updated: March 29, 2021  |  Published: Aug. 5, 2020

As governments around the world continue to grapple with the pandemic, FP
Analytics has developed the COVID-19 Global Response Index to track countries’
responses to the novel coronavirus according to key metrics. While country
rankings have been published by other organizations and publications, the Index
is the first effort to track national leaders’ responses in critical policy
areas, including public health directives, financial responses, and fact-based
public communications—and is doing so on an ongoing basis. Initially released on
August 5th, 2020, the Index has been updated periodically. The latest update
reflects country-level and vaccine data as of March 15, 2021.

FPA’s COVID-19 Global Response Index covers a set of 36 countries, including G20
nations as well as several other developing and middle-income countries that
experts and epidemiologists have identified as having notable experiences with
respect to COVID-19. This group represents a set of countries for which there is
reasonably robust data availability as well as global geographic distribution
and socio-economic and political diversity. While notable gaps in data and
reporting remain, this Index endeavors to provide a framework to track
government responses across multiple categories and will continue to be refined
and expanded as more consistently tracked and disaggregated datasets become
available and understanding of the virus can inform further Index weighting.

The Index and associated country profiles are based on global data tracked from
December 31, 2019 through March 15, 2021. They are intended to illuminate major
actions taken by governments to contain the spread of the virus, identify areas
for improvement, and highlight promising practices to inform countries’ ongoing
responses. The Index includes policy choices and actions across three (3)
categories and produces a composite score that reflects more than containment of
the virus, but also financial support for domestic economies amid the global
economic shock and commitment to fact-based communication among leaders. Data
availability and reporting continues to be a challenge; nonetheless, this
project seeks to provide a more holistic view of countries’ responses to the
pandemic across variables and inclusive of contextual information. FPA’s
COVID-19 Global Response Index supplements The Global Race to Vaccinate report
and FP’s international COVID-19 coverage, expert dialogues, and special events
that are convening pre-eminent leaders in global health, policy, and security
from around the world.

The Index was developed with insights from social scientists, public health
experts, and leading epidemiologists working at the forefront of the pandemic
response, including those from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
the University of Oxford, the University of Michigan, the University of
Maryland, the University of Massachusetts, UC-Irvine, and UC-Davis’
collaboration with USAID’s Emerging Pandemic Threats project, among others. We
are grateful for their contributions.

Click a country for full details

Zoom level changed to 1
Overall
Index Score
100

New Zealand

New Zealand has had very strong policy, particularly with regard to its reliance
on science and facts and its relatively strong financial response.

SEE FULL COUNTRY PROFILE

Overall
Index Score
97.2

Senegal

Senegal’s COVID-19 policy response has been very strong across the board, buoyed
by strong public health directives and a reliance on science and facts.

SEE FULL COUNTRY PROFILE

Overall
Index Score
93.7

Iceland

Iceland has a very strong score, owing heavily to its reliance on facts as well
as generous debt and income support; its large improvement since January was
keyed by significant improvements in public health policy and financial support.

SEE FULL COUNTRY PROFILE

Overall
Index Score
85.7

Denmark

Denmark's score is very strong, due to a robust healthcare system and to
generous fiscal responses that safeguarded employment. Public health directives
have improved substantially in recent months.

SEE FULL COUNTRY PROFILE

Overall
Index Score
83.2

Ghana

Ghana scores strongly on the Index, due primarily to its proactive public health
policy, strong examples set by leadership, and reliance on facts; while
consistently strong, it does have very weak testing, limited emergency
healthcare spending, and a weak stimulus.

SEE FULL COUNTRY PROFILE

Overall
Index Score
81.4

Australia

Australia is a strong performer, particularly due to a generous financial
response by way of income support, but delayed implementation of its policies
pulls down its score.

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Overall
Index Score
79.1

Finland

Clear, fact-based communications, a generous stimulus package, and substantial
improvements in public health policy in the past few months have been
instrumental factors in Finland's strong and much-improved COVID-19 response.

SEE FULL COUNTRY PROFILE

Overall
Index Score
78

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia has a relatively strong policy response to COVID-19, with a
reliance on facts and science, and tight restrictions on public gatherings,
although its weak financial response brings its score down.

SEE FULL COUNTRY PROFILE

Overall
Index Score
73.3

Taiwan

Taiwan has a relatively strong policy score, but its minimal stimulus and weak
debt relief bring it down. However, the data does not accurately measure its
advanced contact tracing, which may have diminished the need for more
restrictions; this likely results in a score that underestimates Taiwan’s
response.

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Overall
Index Score
72.7

Japan

Japan has a strong overall score, driven by its generous financial response and
a reliance on facts, although its public health policy is very weak.

SEE FULL COUNTRY PROFILE

Overall
Index Score
72.5

France

France maintained its improved public health policy from the early fall, keeping
its score relatively strong, although poor contact tracing and a relatively
small stimulus package kept it from being higher.

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Overall
Index Score
72.2

Kenya

Kenya has a strong overall policy score, although down significantly from
January. However, it is consistently scoring well in all areas, particularly its
reliance with respect to facts and science on COVID-19.

SEE FULL COUNTRY PROFILE

Overall
Index Score
71.7

Belgium

Belgium has a relative strong score, with its generous income support and strong
testing and contact tracing countered by limited public health directives.

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Overall
Index Score
71.5

South Africa

Overall, South Africa's score is relatively strong with vigorous policy
implementation—particularly with respect to lockdowns—offset by its relatively
meager financial response.

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Overall
Index Score
65.9

Argentina

Argentina’s strong policy score is mainly due to its strong political response,
characterized by clear, fact-based communication and regular press briefings by
President Fernandez.

SEE FULL COUNTRY PROFILE

Overall
Index Score
63.3

Canada

Canada has a relatively strong score, with poor public health policy countered
by a continued reliance on fact-based communication.

SEE FULL COUNTRY PROFILE

Overall
Index Score
62.4

Ethiopia

Despite having relatively weak pre-pandemic capacity, swift action and
prevention-based messaging from the government helped mitigate spread early on
in the crisis.

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Overall
Index Score
62

South Korea

South Korea has a relatively strong score, brought down some by its very weak
financial policy; its public health score is likely underestimated here, given
the data’s limitations to adequately account for the impacts of the country’s
advanced contact tracing.

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Overall
Index Score
61

Germany

Germany has improved its score a bit in the past few months, after a sharp
decline in the fall. Its improvements in contact tracing, which are already
likely underestimated in the data, and restrictions on public gatherings, have
played important roles in this turnaround, although there has been a recent
spike in cases, likely due to both recent restriction relaxations and vaccine
rollout issues.

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Overall
Index Score
60.8

Sweden

Despite being known for a relatively strong public healthcare system, Sweden has
been hit hard with cases; the country’s lack of stay-at-home orders and school
closures, limited testing, and few gathering restrictions overshadowed its
financial support, reliance on facts, and accountability with an open press.

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Overall
Index Score
55.9

United Kingdom

The U.K. scored near the median for overall policy, due to a relatively strong
financial policy, although its weak initial lockdown hurt its score; the new
strain is causing a huge uptick in cases, resulting in stricter lockdowns.

SEE FULL COUNTRY PROFILE

Overall
Index Score
51.9

Hungary

Hungary scores above the median, but limited testing, efforts to limit press
freedom, and a very weak stimulus package have weakened its score over time.

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Overall
Index Score
51.7

India

India scores just above the median, a large drop-off in recent months, keyed by
substantial weakening of restrictions and worsening financial support.

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Overall
Index Score
49.2

Switzerland

Switzerland's reliance on facts and an open media drove its score up to the
median, helping to counter weak financial support and limited restrictions on
social interactions.

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Overall
Index Score
48.6

Netherlands

The Netherlands’ overall policy is now near the median, a significant
improvement from January, driven by a stronger financial response despite its
low testing levels and limited lockdown.

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Overall
Index Score
48.6

Italy

While hit hard by COVID-19, Italy’s reliance on facts and improved contact
tracing has helped slow the spread and slightly improved its overall score since
January.

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Overall
Index Score
44.1

Norway

Norway scores just below the median, pulled down by its weak public health and
financial response scores, despite a strong reliance on facts and a free press.

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Overall
Index Score
39.2

Mexico

Mexico's score has deteriorated over time, due primarily to its extremely weak
financial response and relatively weak public health policy, including very
limited testing.

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Overall
Index Score
38.3

Indonesia

Indonesia scores relatively weakly, a big drop in the past few months, keyed by
substantial weakening of travel restrictions, testing policy, and debt relief.

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Overall
Index Score
37.8

Brazil

Brazil has a relatively weak score, primarily due to its poor public health
policies, especially its very low levels of testing, coupled with President
Bolsonaro’s spreading of misinformation about the virus.

SEE FULL COUNTRY PROFILE

Overall
Index Score
37.3

Russia

Russia has a relatively weak score, with strong public health policy undone by
weak financial support, limitations on press freedom, and spread of
misinformation about the pandemic.

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Overall
Index Score
32.8

China

China’s aggressive lockdowns played a key role in controlling case and death
rates. However, its low score is driven by multiple factors, including the
country’s minimal financial response and lack of press freedom and fact-based
communications. China’s failure to report testing obscures understanding of
actual COVID-19 dynamics within the country.

SEE FULL COUNTRY PROFILE

Overall
Index Score
31.3

Spain

Spain's score jumped since January to just over the median, having implemented
stricter public health policies, but the country's minimal stimulus support
still drags down its overall score.

SEE FULL COUNTRY PROFILE

Overall
Index Score
19.9

United States

Still battling widespread COVID-19 cases and deaths, which were exacerbated by
the former administration's limited use of facts and science, limited emergency
healthcare spending, and limited debt relief, the Biden administration, by
contrast, is taking aggressive action to combat the virus, although it may take
time for the score to reflect these changes.

SEE FULL COUNTRY PROFILE

Overall
Index Score
14.6

Turkey

Turkey has very weak policy, driven by little emergency spending, stimulus, or
debt relief, and loosening restrictions. It also has limited press freedom and
has conducted minimal testing.

SEE FULL COUNTRY PROFILE

Overall
Index Score
0

Iran

Iran has a very weak policy score, due largely to very weak public health
policy, driven by a severe lack of testing and substantial misinformation and
press limitations by the national authorities.

SEE FULL COUNTRY PROFILE

↓


COUNTRIES COMBATING ANOTHER WAVE OF COVID-19 AS CASE NUMBERS RISE AND VARIANTS
SPREAD

The latest round of data on COVID-19 cases and reopening of some economies
illustrates a key point: the world is still facing challenges with COVID-19, and
many countries have had to re-impose restrictions to contain further spread. As
expected, cases rose in many of the pandemic’s worst-hit countries throughout
the winter months as more people stayed indoors. Many countries, particularly in
Europe, may have entered a third wave of the pandemic, as the new variants of
the virus spread globally. While countries with higher Index scores continue to
have generally managed cases more effectively, even they have seen increases in
the virus within their borders. Several mutations of the virus—the three most
prominent ones having emerged from the U.K. (B.1.1.7), South Africa (B.1.351),
and Brazil (P.1)—have been complicating COVID-19 management just as vaccines are
rolling out. And though more testing is needed, several of the vaccines appear
to be less effective against these variants. The COVID-19 Global Response Index
country scores do not incorporate vaccine rollout data as it is too preliminary;
FPA’s analysis and comparative data on the vaccine rollout can be found here.
While still in the early stages of vaccine deployments, the last year of
COVID-19 has taught us that countries whose leaders take rapid action, target
policies, and advance science-based communications are among those most
effectively managing spread. This responsiveness remains critical as more
contagious variants spread across the globe and push many healthcare systems
closer to the brink.


VACCINE ROLLOUT OF COUNTRIES IN THE COVID-19 INDEX
(COLORS ARE ASSOCIATED WITH EACH COUNTRY'S OVERALL INDEX SCORE)

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KEY TAKEAWAYS 1 YEAR INTO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Findings from the Index and supplementary research indicate:


CRISIS PREPARATION AND PLANNING ENABLED RAPID RESPONSE, NOTABLY IN AFRICA & ASIA

Planning and preparation for health-related crises have enabled rapid response
and COVID-19 containment. Notably, lessons learned from H1N1 and Ebola have
informed crisis planning and preparedness in Australia, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal,
and Taiwan, among the highest performers in the Index.


EARLY INVESTMENT IN EMERGENCY HEALTHCARE CUSHIONED IMPACT

Early investment and strategic stockpiles of medical supplies and personal
protective equipment have helped enable healthcare response, notably in Iceland,
New Zealand, and Russia.


TARGETED & COMPREHENSIVE POLICIES PRODUCED BETTER OUTCOMES

Strong health-care capacity pre-pandemic was not necessarily indicative of
outcomes, but preparation, targeted testing, and quick action have had impacts.
For example, Sweden and neighboring Denmark both have extremely strong health
capacity, but Denmark’s public health and financial policies related to the
pandemic resulted in COVID-19 having a much lower impact there than Sweden.
Taken further, Senegal, with much weaker capacity, but much stronger policies in
terms of health directives, financial support, and communication, as compared
with Sweden, performed even better in limiting COVID-19’s impact in-country.
Contextual information contained in each of the Index’s country profiles
enriches our understanding of each of these countries and will continue to
inform and augment our analysis as additional data becomes available.


TESTING AND CONTACT TRACING HAVE BEEN GAME CHANGERS

Contact tracing has been key to managing the crisis, notably in Taiwan and South
Korea, though data regarding the degree of tracing and efficacy is not yet
sufficient or differentiated to reflect the importance and positive impact of
these measures. In the case of Taiwan, utilization of data and analytics has
enabled the country to effectively manage the crisis and avoid strict lockdowns.
Widespread availability of testing has also enabled countries to quickly
identify new outbreak clusters and effectively implement quarantine protocols to
prevent spread.

*Given data limitations with respect to contact tracing, Taiwan’s and South
Korea’s successes are not adequately captured in the Index, but both are notable
leaders in this regard and in overall management of the pandemic. Several
countries that employed advanced and aggressive contact tracing or other
measures mitigated their need to implement other major COVID-19-specific
policies, as seen in their low case rates. The Index adjusts for these outliers.
Please refer to the methodology for further detail.


CLEAR POLICY DIRECTIVES MATTER

Countries’ socio-economic and health security—and investment to those
ends—strengthen capacity to respond but are insufficient to manage the crisis.
Clear healthcare and financial directives and early, targeted actions seem to
have significantly impacted outcomes in many of the highest-scoring
countries—notably Denmark, Iceland, New Zealand, Taiwan, Finland and Australia.
Restrictions on gatherings have helped mitigate coronavirus spread. Seen notably
in Belgium, Denmark, Japan, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, serious
restrictions helped all these countries reverse skyrocketing case rates.


CLOSE COORDINATION WITH STATE AND REGIONAL GOVERNMENTS IS KEY

Smaller countries, notably island nations, have some natural advantages managing
spread as compared with larger, more populous nations – and those with
decentralized forms of government face exceptional challenges of policy
coordination and execution. In these latter cases, close coordination and clear
communication among federal, state, and regional entities have been critical to
resource allocation and policy directive implementation, notably in Australia
and Canada.


OVERALL FUNDING AND THE STRUCTURE OF FINANCIAL SUPPORT MECHANISMS MATTER

Financial support to companies—enabling them to keep workers on the payroll—and
relatively strong worker wage support have helped to mitigate COVID-19’s
economic fallout, notably in Denmark, Iceland, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, and
Switzerland. These countries took both assertive action on the public health
response and also passed considerable economic support to mitigate economic
shocks, elevating their scores overall.


MISINFORMATION AND PRESS LIMITATIONS ARE ASSOCIATED WITH POOR COVID-19-RELATED
OUTCOMES

While not causal, the majority of countries whose leaders have engaged in the
spread of misinformation and have limited press freedom with respect to COVID-19
were among those with the highest case rates, notably the U.S., Iran, Hungary,
Brazil, Mexico, and the U.K.


CHALLENGES WITH DATA FROM CHINA

While China scores near the top in terms of COVID-19 status, having relatively
low case and death rates, as reported by the Central Government, it scores near
the bottom in the Index in terms of policy. Failure of Chinese authorities to
consistently report data on key metrics, such as testing, as compared with other
countries, as well as limited transparency on other metrics, results in data
gaps contributing to a low overall policy score. The gap is exacerbated by China
scoring particularly low on the fact-based communications measure, which
includes measuring press limitations on covering the pandemic. The Index policy
score aims to evaluate a country’s range of policies. While that is often tied
closely to the current status of COVID-19 in a country (the number of cases), it
is not always so, as policy and capacity and other factors, including proximity
to countries with major COVID-19 outbreaks, all impact the state of coronavirus
in a country.


DISPROPORTIONATE SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACTS WARRANT FURTHER STUDY

Countries with significant shares of migrant workers and large informal
economies—including India, Brazil, and Kenya—face unique challenges, due to
workers’ limited access to healthcare and mechanisms for extending financial
support, putting these populations at exceptional risk.

Acknowledgements

FPA would like to thank and acknowledge those working on the front lines of the
pandemic and the public health and policy experts who contributed to this study.
We would also like to thank all of those working to systematically track and
report COVID-19-related data, including the University of Oxford, the Johns
Hopkins University, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and a range
of international institutions, such as the IMF, the World Bank, and the United
Nations. FPA’s COVID-19 Global Response Index will continue to be updated with
the help of these and other globally available databases.


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Statistics and government response factors available on each country profile
include:

Pre-COVID Conditions:

 * Debt to GDP ratio
 * Infant mortality rates
 * Hospital beds per 1,000 people
 * Gini coefficients measuring inequality
 * Health access and quality

COVID-19 Public Health Directives:

 * Stay-at home orders
 * School-closing policy
 * Public-gathering restrictions
 * Cancellation of public events
 * Testing policy and rates per 1,000 people
 * Emergency healthcare spending per capita
 * Travel restrictions
 * Contact tracing

COVID-19 Financial Response:

 * Stimulus package as a share of GDP
 * Income support
 * Debt-forbearance

Public Communications:

 * Instances of misinformation by leadership
 * Limitations on press freedom, censorship

Current/Historic In-Country COVID-19 Status:

 * Death rates per 1 million
 * Case rates per 1 million

Methodology»
TheFull Index Data as of Mar 15
 * Highest
 * 
 * 
 * Lowest

Change in overall score since Aug 1.

 * 100 New Zealand 2,432
   Cases 0
   Per 1M 3
   Deaths
 * 97.2 Senegal 36,996
   Cases 8
   Per 1M 148
   Deaths
 * 93.7 Iceland 6,083
   Cases 0
   Per 1M 3
   Deaths
 * 85.7 Denmark 221,763
   Cases 2
   Per 1M 830
   Deaths
 * 83.2 Ghana 87,985
   Cases 6
   Per 1M 217
   Deaths
 * 81.4 Australia 29,137
   Cases 0
   Per 1M 11
   Deaths
 * 79.1 Finland 67,334
   Cases 4
   Per 1M 687
   Deaths
 * 78 Saudi Arabia 382,752
   Cases 6
   Per 1M 367
   Deaths
 * 73.3 Taiwan 990
   Cases 0
   Per 1M 2
   Deaths
 * 72.7 Japan 448,000
   Cases 46
   Per 1M 1,146
   Deaths
 * 72.5 France 4,138,345
   Cases 262
   Per 1M 24,105
   Deaths
 * 72.2 Kenya 113,967
   Cases 6
   Per 1M 686
   Deaths
 * 71.7 Belgium 809,861
   Cases 36
   Per 1M 2,979
   Deaths
 * 71.5 South Africa 1,530,033
   Cases 88
   Per 1M 1,190
   Deaths
 * 65.9 Argentina 2,201,886
   Cases 102
   Per 1M 6,742
   Deaths
 * 63.3 Canada 918,406
   Cases 30
   Per 1M 3,166
   Deaths
 * 62.4 Ethiopia 176,618
   Cases 16
   Per 1M 1,355
   Deaths
 * 62 South Korea 96,380
   Cases 5
   Per 1M 445
   Deaths
 * 61 Germany 2,585,385
   Cases 209
   Per 1M 10,229
   Deaths
 * 60.8 Sweden 712,527
   Cases 20
   Per 1M 3,938
   Deaths
 * 55.9 United Kingdom 4,276,840
   Cases 145
   Per 1M 5,836
   Deaths
 * 51.9 Hungary 524,196
   Cases 156
   Per 1M 7,926
   Deaths
 * 51.7 India 11,409,831
   Cases 132
   Per 1M 23,578
   Deaths
 * 49.2 Switzerland 573,815
   Cases 9
   Per 1M 1,254
   Deaths
 * 48.6 Netherlands 1,178,501
   Cases 33
   Per 1M 5,628
   Deaths
 * 48.6 Italy 3,238,394
   Cases 342
   Per 1M 22,432
   Deaths
 * 44.1 Norway 81,305
   Cases 1
   Per 1M 791
   Deaths
 * 39.2 Mexico 2,167,729
   Cases 574
   Per 1M 5,322
   Deaths
 * 38.3 Indonesia 1,425,044
   Cases 147
   Per 1M 5,498
   Deaths
 * 37.8 Brazil 11,519,609
   Cases 1,841
   Per 1M 66,849
   Deaths
 * 37.3 Russia 4,350,728
   Cases 425
   Per 1M 9,474
   Deaths
 * 32.8 China 101,421
   Cases 0
   Per 1M 39
   Deaths
 * 31.3 Spain 3,195,062
   Cases 141
   Per 1M 4,870
   Deaths
 * 19.9 United States 29,495,424
   Cases 1,361
   Per 1M 55,333
   Deaths
 * 14.6 Turkey 2,894,893
   Cases 65
   Per 1M 14,466
   Deaths
 * 0 Iran 1,754,933
   Cases 78
   Per 1M 8,133
   Deaths

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