Malaysia Ranks Dead Last In Bloomberg’s Covid Resilience Ranking

Ranking is based on how the virus is being handled most effectively with the least social and economic disruption.

Malay Mail

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In this universal battle against Covid-19, the enemy is invisible but has left repercussions that have severely affected our quality of life physically, mentally, and economically.

The same thing that unites us in the world is the same thing that is also dividing us.

Last year, a team at Bloomberg put together a monthly Covid Resilience Ranking to track the largest 53 economies on their success at containing the virus with the least amount of social and economic disruption.

Why only 53 economies? Bloomberg decided that for brevity and relevance they would limit the ranking to economies valued at more than $200 billion before the pandemic. Of those economies is Malaysia, which currently ranks dead last at 53.

Delta Variant Wreaks Havoc

When the world was seeing success at containing the virus, the highly transmissible mutation called the delta variant came exploding onto the scene which soon saw a glaring shift in infections.

This in turn had countries scrambling for a new approach that led to a domino effect of events affecting life socially and economically…again.

Despite Malaysia acting fast and furiously to get nearly half the population vaccinated, with reopening plans for those inoculated, cases are still at an all-time high, and the highest death rate to date was just yesterday (26 August).

A snapshot of Malaysia in the Covid Resilience Ranking

In Bloomberg’s latest round-up of the Covid Resilience Ranking under the category filtered by the Reopening Progress, you will see only “People Covered by Vaccines” in blue which means we are improving at getting more people vaccinated.

In Malaysia’s current Covid Status according to the Ranking, our monthly cases per 100,000 people are significantly worse, though Covid deaths over the past three months and those per one million people since the start of the pandemic have improved.

Our Positive Test Rate is also better based on the percentage that comes back positive which is only 14%.

Under the Quality of Life indices, which probably reflects us the most, the Covid Resilience Ranking was based on the following:

Community Mobility – The movement of people to offices and retail spaces compared to a pre-pandemic baseline in the past month.
2021 GDP Growth Forecast – Year-on-year GDP change forecast.
Universal Healthcare Coverage – The strength of a healthcare system, derived through the efficacy of 23 aspects of health coverage ranging from preventative measures like childhood vaccines to treatment of serious illnesses like cancer.
Human Development Index – Well-being of a population defined by three measures: life-expectancy, access to education, income per capita.

Based on the colour spectrum of “worse” to “better”, we are at the lower end in the Community Mobility aspect but our healthcare system and overall well-being seem to be getting better.

What have other countries taught us?

While Bloomberg merely gives a snapshot in time amid a fast-moving crisis, there are a few lessons learned on how to best handle the pandemic.

For example, the economies that are highly ranked share a common trait: They all have a widespread high degree of trust and societal compliance. Currently, those economies are Norway, Netherlands, Finland, Ireland and Austria.

New Zealand used to be in the top 3 before the Delta outbreak so it made news when they had one new case and locked down the whole nation, going from being the most relaxed to the strictest country in handling the pandemic. This ultimately plunged them 26 spots down the ranks.

Last but not least, investment in public health infrastructure also matters.

Systems for contact tracing, effective testing, and health education are characteristics of countries that have performed consistently well in the Ranking.

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