UAE ranks first in Arab world in handling COVID-19 pandemic, says report

Ahmed Al Bashir, Staff Reporter

The UAE ranked first in the Arab world and second globally on the list of the most resilient countries in handling and responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the 2021 report of the Resilience Index for dealing with epidemics issued by the Consumer Choice Centre.

The report, which relies on available government data, aims at providing an overview of the global health system's preparedness for the COVID-19 pandemic.

It mentioned the UAE in particular, indicating that its performance was much better than all EU countries, with regard to the national vaccination programme.

"The UAE has rapidly launched the vaccination programme and vaccinated more than 50% of the population," said Fred Roeder, General Manager of Consumer Choice Centre.

The report pointed out that the average of COVID-19 tests in the UAE ranked third after Cyprus and Luxembourg, and ahead of Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary, France and Italy.

The report added: "The pandemic put health systems around the world to an emergency test, and revealed their strengths and weaknesses, especially with regard to hospital capacity, planning capabilities, and the provision of a regulatory mechanism capable of responding quickly and efficiently upon tests and vaccination."

The report evaluates 40 countries in terms of approval of vaccines, distribution, number of intensive care beds, and number of tests.

According to the report, the UAE achieved the highest ranking, regarding these criteria, ahead of the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany. It added that countries which started tests and vaccination as soon as possible, and provided a sufficient number of intensive care beds, have contained the Corona virus better than others.