Coronavirus: UAE ranks high for Covid-19 response in global league table

UAE in top tier for level of safety amid pandemic

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  Visitors look at a giraffe at the national zoo in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Reuters

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The UAE is among the top countries in the world for its coronavirus response, a global ranking shows.

A survey by the Deep Knowledge Group, a consortium of technology companies and non-profit organisations, considered dozens of factors for each country to compile the list.

It placed Switzerland, Germany, Israel, Singapore and Japan in the top five.

Austria, China, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea made up the top 10, with the UAE 11th on the list.

Its presence in the world’s top 20 for coronavirus response places it in Tier 1, among countries that demonstrated a “high level of regional safety”.

Saudi Arabia is also included in Tier 1, in 17th place.

The US, which has suffered the world’s largest outbreak, appears in 58th place. The UK fared even worse, in 68th.

That placed both countries in Tier 3, among 60 countries and territories that scored “much less favourably during the first-phase analysis than would be expected" given their pre-pandemic efficiency in quarantine, government risk management, monitoring and detection, health systems, regional resilience and emergency preparedness".

The ranking includes four tiers.

Countries in the fourth level, many of which are in developing regions, suffer from “high levels of data unavailability or unreliability”.

The Deep Knowledge Group also ranked countries in regions, with Israel, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain in the top five for Mena.

Its report said many of the well-performing Mena countries gave high priority to funding universal health care systems.

“Many of these territories have also in recent years made substantial investments in medical modernisation and the development of cutting-edge healthcare technologies and facilities," the group said.

It said those countries have for several years been committed to developing sophisticated and advanced healthcare cities.

The UAE announced 479 new cases on Thursday, after 47,000 more tests, bringing the country's total to 40,986.

There have been 286 deaths across the Emirates, a small number compared to many other countries including the UK, which has 291,409 cases and more than 41,000 confirmed deaths.

The UAE's strategy of taking early steps to contain the virus, including rigorous testing and contact tracing of cases, has been praised internationally.

Officials have also stressed the importance of wearing face masks when outside and abiding by other safety measures such as physical distancing.