Chile is the safest country in the world to spend Christmas, according to an international ranking

The Omicron variant is broadly halting the move toward normalization that characterized 2021 , though a reluctance to return to pre-vaccine lockdowns and other restrictions is making the difference between the best and worst places to be during the pandemic. in December.

The Omicron variant, the most transmissible to date, is rapidly becoming dominant in the United States and Europe, overtaking the Delta variant with unprecedented speed . This has seen the 53 economies scored in the Bloomberg Covid Resilience Ranking become more stringent overall, with restrictions in place in the last month of the year to limit people's mobility as cases surge from London to Sydney.

However, most major economies are refraining from reverting to measures used in 2020 to contain the virus that brought the economy to a standstill, relying instead on more accelerated administration of booster doses to combat the new variant. .

In December, locations in South America gained ground , in part thanks to warmer weather and a slower arrival of the Omicron variant. Chile dethroned the United Arab Emirates to take first place . It is now summer in Santiago, tourism has resumed and Chileans are the population with the second highest vaccination rate in the world among countries with more than 1 million inhabitants , reflecting a change in a region that was devastated by the virus. but largely unaffected by Delta.

top 10

While Omicron may be the best immune evader of the new virus variants so far, preliminary research shows that booster doses may still provide sufficient protection. Vaccination remains a key differentiator in the ranking; In addition to Chile, the top 10 places for December include countries such as Ireland, Finland and Canada , which face worrying new waves, but are also among the first to offer the third dose.

The Covid Resilience Ranking, which is compiled using 12 data indicators spanning containment of the virus, quality of health care, vaccination coverage, overall mortality, and progress toward resuming travel , indicates how 53 largest economies in the world are responding to the same threat.

Despite facing a sharp rise in cases, the US and UK have ruled out a return of strict restrictions for now, remaining largely unchanged in December at 12th and 10th places, respectively. This hands-off strategy means its outlook for the new year hinges on whether the number of deaths follows the trend of rising cases or the wave of omicron proves mild.

The situation in Europe

In Europe, a few countries - Germany, Norway and the Netherlands - have imposed far-reaching restrictions to curb a resurgence of the virus, causing them to drop down the rankings. Austria, however, emerged from a three-week shutdown in time for Christmas and moved up 17 places to No. 31 in December.

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South Africa, the original epicenter of the Omicron outbreak, dropped seven places to penultimate out of 53 countries due to a higher rate of positive tests and entry bans imposed by other countries on its travellers. Meanwhile, Southeast Asia dominates the bottom of the ranking for the seventh consecutive month.

Opening

To capture which of the 53 economies are successfully reopening, we focused on their progress on vaccination, the severity of lockdowns, and the restrictions in place, all of which assess how far each place is from pre-Covid levels of normality.

The top-ranked places' scores generally reflect the best possible scenario of high vaccination rates, relatively controlled mortality levels, return of flight capability to pre-pandemic levels, and few travel restrictions for vaccinated individuals.

Among the 10 places in the ranking that continue to block the most foreign tourists, nine are in the Asia-Pacific region, including mainland China. Despite having fully inoculated around 85% of its 1.4 billion people, China's international borders remain closed.

Vaccination is where places like Europe and the US make up for their weaknesses from the early stage of Covid containment. Their ranking positions improved in the early summer (the US was ranked first in June), as investment in research and focus on rapid deployments proved critical.

Most vaccines have been shown to be somewhat less effective against the Delta variant and recent evidence indicates that immunity declines six months after vaccination , so many of the countries that have achieved high coverage are expanding their vaccination campaigns, implementing booster doses for adults and expanding immunization to children. Chile, December's number one, began administering boosters in August and about 53% of the total population have already received their third dose.

Boosted immunity

Now that rich countries see booster doses as necessary to protect against the Omicron variant, the inequality in access to vaccines between rich and poor countries will worsen. The WHO said the rush to roll out third doses in the developed world will lead to a vaccine shortfall of 3 billion by early 2022.

If one thing is clear, it is that past performance in the fight against the pandemic is no guarantee of future success or failure. Countries have been hampered time and time again by the vagaries of the biggest health crisis in a generation , but some have also found ways to reverse devastating situations, whether through science, social cohesion, or simply learning from the past. .

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