Portugal has been placed among the group of countries that had a less effective response to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a report released by a team from the University of Cambridge. In a specific ranking of countries’’ reactions to the outbreak, Portugal appears in 25th place among the 33 countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) nations evaluated.
The list has Spain as the country with the worst management, and South Korea as the state that best responded to the pandemic. Behind Portugal, in addition to Spain, and in order from best to worst, is Turkey, Ireland, USA, Italy, France, United Kingdom and Belgium. The authors admit that "some countries may have been artificially penalized in the data presented in this table due to their more complete reporting of deaths from Covid-19 (counting probable cases as well as tested cases)".
Sweden, publicly regarded by many as being a bad example in their reaction to the health crisis, appears in 22nd place, three places above Portugal.
The report uses certain indicators to classify the emergency responses, including the rate of contagion and the degree of control over the spread of the outbreak, in addition to the evolution in the number of people killed. It also considers the decline in public mobility, something that has occurred to a great extent in Portugal.
"This Covid-19 control index summarizes the performance of each country in three dimensions (mortality rate, rapid contagion rate and control efficiency). We studied all OECD countries, except the three middle-income countries in Latin America (Chile, Colombia and Mexico), where the virus arrived later, and Iceland due to the lack of relevant data on physical mobility, which we used to build the efficiency index," explain the Cambridge researchers.
Underlining that the countries with the most population had more difficulty in containing the outbreak, as they received a higher volume of visitors, the ranking allows one to conclude that "the Asia-Pacific region, in general, had a high performance, exemplified in the classifications: South Korea, 1st; Australia, 3rd; Japan, 6th ", say the authors.
At a European level, conclusions are also drawn. "In general, northern Europe outperformed the south and Eastern Europe outperformed Western Europe."
Classifying the performance of the United States as poor, the report says that in this country, "most states introduced partial lockdowns in mid-March, but started lifting them in early May. Contagion and mortality rates are the highest in the OECD ".
Furthermore, generally speaking, the study's authors claim that, due to the novel coronavirus, "the world is facing the worst economic and public health crisis in a century" and report that "on June 20, 2020, about 463,000 people had died of covid-19 worldwide".
The consequences are devastating, with sustainable development being affected: "The health crisis is affecting all countries, including high-income countries in Europe and North America. The measures needed to respond to the immediate threat of Covid-19, including the closure of many economic activities for weeks, led to a global economic crisis with huge job losses and major impacts, especially on vulnerable groups. This is a significant setback for the global ambition to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly for poor countries".
In addition, as reflected in the ranking, Cambridge analysts call attention to a shift in the geopolitical balance, in which "Asian countries have made the greatest progress towards the SDGs since their adoption in 2015" and emphasize that it is precisely these countries who "responded more effectively to the Covid-19 outbreak". From their research, they conclude that it is likely that "the crisis will accelerate the shift of the global geopolitical and economic centre of gravity from the North Atlantic region to the Asia-Pacific region."
Comments
There are significant social differences between the two countries Rod.
The UK is steeped in political correctness and citizens rights (but not responsibilities) so the young and irresponsible run riot, literally.
Portugal still lives in the shadow of recent dictatorship which makes government control of citizens far easier.
As Peter points out, the quality of the testing regime is different in each country, and to make comparisons on the basis of tests alone is to compare apples with pears.
A British woman known to my wife, still distressed, told us a month or more back that she could not take away her deceased British partner without signing this form. In Portuguese and rapidly translated to her as being a standard document.
As explained to her, this form was her agreement that her partner had been well cared for and that she agreed with whatever pneumonia treatment had been used on him. That a final clause was that this was a non-disclosure agreement to be kept on file in the home. She could not have a copy. On signing it the care home would arrange the undertaker and funeral arrangements.
As she said to us "John had a nasty cough when I last saw him. He was confined to his room and he said he had been told others there had it. But how would I know what treatment he had had as I never saw him alive again. "
Why not do a study on why Sweden did better than the worst hit countries without a lockdown and is now probably in a better position as it allowed the virus to spread amongst the population and create some degree of herd immunity.
Portugal was one of the first countries to start wearing masks in public places and to supply hand sanitizer at the entrance to every business that is open to the public.
This has been taking place since 4th May and has been mandatory, what other countries are taking these measures, I actually don't know of any other country in Europe that is as diligent with its efforts to protect people against the virus.