Sri Lanka ranked second in latest international research on COVID-19 fight

Monday, 28 September 2020 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

YICAI Research Institute, a well-known Chinese financial think tank, has released a comprehensive survey report in terms of COVID-19 pandemic prevention measures, economic recovery and international cooperation in 108 countries, with Sri Lanka ranked second in overall score.

It’s the highest international recognition so far for the island nation in fighting the coronavirus. The English full report is scheduled to be published in October.

As the report revealed, nine out of the top 10 countries were in the Asia-Pacific region namely China, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Myanmar, Australia, Thailand, New Zealand, Vietnam and Cambodia. Ghana from Africa ranked the third place.

Denmark and Germany performed best among European countries, ranked 21st and 23rd. Brazil and the US, both countries with leaders who initially downplayed the problem and with lower levels of co-operation by the public, respectively ranked 89th and 98th. Sweden, which opted for the controversial policy of herd immunity, came in at number 90.

The Institute used the SEIR epidemiological model to predict the state of the pandemic in different nations, classing them as either Susceptible, Exposed, Infectious or Removed, as well as its own self-developed ‘social network-based virus transmission model’. The evaluation system including 23 detailed indicators had made quantitative evaluation of the performance of 108 countries in the war against COVID-19.

Countries with strict epidemic prevention policies, such as China, Sri Lanka, South Korea and Italy, all had the pandemic under control in recent months, the models showed, which based their calculations on earlier disease trajectories and with the assumption that asymptomatic cases continued to be present.

Until an effective vaccine is widely available, the novel coronavirus will co-exist with humans, the report concluded. Effective governance that responds quickly using technological means and which can depend on public support is an effective strategy to deal with the pandemic.

YICAI Research Institute is part of the China’s largest financial media conglomerate Yicai Media Group (‘Yicai’ is the Pinyin abbreviation of its official Chinese name, meaning first and best in financial and business media).

Founded in July 2003, Yicai employs a team of 1,000 journalists and professionals specialising in finance and economics, and runs over 10 overseas stations, sending real-time financial and economic news coverage back to the headquarter from New York, Singapore, Tokyo, London, Paris etc around the world. In 2015, e-commerce tycoon Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group took a 30% stake in Yicai.