Bloomberg Places Israel at No. 5 on COVID Resilience Ranking

In recent news, the State of Israel was bumped up nine spots and placed in the top five of the COVID Resilience Ranking assigned by Bloomberg. 

The ranking helps evaluate no less than 53 countries, as per a bunch of important data points to figure out which of these countries is effectively battling the novel coronavirus. Bloomberg focuses on mortality, vaccination, and testing rates, as well as social and economic disruptions. Thus, those places that have the highest vaccination and testing rates, lowest rate of mortality, and social and economic disruptions, are positioned at the top. 

The State of Israel was moved to the fifth slot, just below New Zealand, Singapore, Australia, and then Taiwan. These are the countries that Bloomberg has ranked as those that are doing well since November of 2020. 

According to the ranking, all five of these countries made sure to take effective actions as soon as the threat of the virus became imminent. They have managed to curb the spread of the deadly disease and kept it in check for the past year. This has helped in promoting a higher standard of living for the people residing in these countries. 

Israel has come up to the fifth position due to the success of its three-month-long mass vaccination campaign. It is said to be the fastest movement in the world. Just last week, Yuli Edelstein, the Health Minister, revealed that more than 50% of the citizens of the country have been given both the jabs of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine. 

Bloomberg released a report in which it welcomed Israel as the first country to have made an entry into the Resilience Ranking since the month of November, which is when it first started keeping track. The American Company further added that most of the coronavirus success stories belong to economies lying in the Asia-Pacific. 

However, Bloomberg noted, where other top-ranked countries are tightly policing entry to ensure that the virus is kept out, Israel is normalizing vaccines. Thus, the country is able to ease its border curbs steadily. 

Back on the 20th of March, the State of Israel opened up its skies to the entire world. According to this policy, Israeli citizens from across the globe could set foot into the country to cast their votes for a new government. Since the election took place last Tuesday, the government has not introduced any new restrictions. 

The coronavirus cabinet, however, was asked to convene at the earliest by several Health Ministry officials. 

Analysts from Bloomberg also stated that in their opinion, new mutations of the virus are most likely to enter into Israel through the reopening of the skies. This will effectively threaten the progress that the country has made with its vaccination campaign and lead to additional waves of infection. 

Bloomberg went on to add that there are some vaccines that have already proven to be less or completely ineffective against newer variants of the virus, such as one from South Africa. Thus, this could lead to devastating consequences for the State of Israel, if it does not implement some kind of restrictions to keep the incoming passengers in check.