Now with the pandemic hopefully approaching its end, it is time for reflection and thorough analysis of emerging case studies.

Both the US and EU had hard time adjusting their health systems to the COVID-19 crisis, effectively scaling up testing early on and overcoming the pre-existing regulatory burdens. Countries such as Israel and the UAE avoided such mistakes though.

Based on the findings of the recently published Consumer Choice Center’s Pandemic Resilience Index 2021, Israel and the UAE were found to be the most pandemic resilient countries. Both countries lead the global vaccination and testing efforts. As of March 31st, 2021, the average number of daily tests conducted in the UAE was 8.29 which was almost three times higher than France, Finland, Ireland, and Portugal.

Since the start of the pandemic, testing services have been extensively available across the UAE. Using the most up to date facilities and testing systems, Abu Dhabi Health Services (SEHA) and Abu Dhabi Department of Health put in place drive through testing services to stop the spread, and testing every two weeks has been encouraged. In March 2020, a massive laboratory was built in just 14 days to scale up the testing.

The UAE has also successfully leveraged digital technologies to tackle the pandemic. Chat-bots as well as various apps were developed and introduced to mitigate the consequences of a health disaster. For example, the “Doctor for every citizen” app was made available to facilitate communication between the public and doctors.

Israel is a clear winner when it comes to the speed of vaccinations. As of March 31st, 60.64 per cent of the population of Israel received at least one dose of vaccine which is mainly the reason why Israel heads the Pandemic Resilience Index, Israel’s COVID-vaccination campaign kicked off 17 days later than that of the UK (the first country in the world to authorise Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine). For comparison, it took most EU countries more than 20 days more than the UK to do that. In the case of the Netherlands – 37 days longer.

Israel, on the other hand, has neither the highest number of ICU beds per 100k people nor a very high average number of new COVID tests per thousand people. However, the number of ventilators available per 100k people in Israel is 40, which is much higher than, for example, Poland, Greece, Latvia, Malta, Ireland.

The United Arab Emirates comes in second mainly because of its vaccination rate. As of March 31st 2021, UAE administered 84 doses of vaccines per 100 people. Regarding the start of the vaccination, the UAE took over the EU in terms of vaccination by about 10 days. The UK and the US (53 and 45 doses respectively) follow the UAE. The remainder of the countries analysed, are significantly behind.

However, no one is truly out of the pandemic unless everyone is out. Israel and UAE are the pandemic success stories but the rest of the world needs to catch up so that we can all get back to some normality. Health resilience, and in particular, the ability to foresee future crises and make the necessary precautions are crucial, and EU’s mistakes such as slow vaccine rollout and testing, have proven to be costly. Moving forward, the Union and member states need to act in a smarter way, following the example of Israel and the UAE.

Originally published here.

According to the 2021 report of the Resilience Index for dealing with epidemics issued by the Consumer Choice Centre, 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 report, the UAE achieved the highest ranking, ahead of the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany in terms of approval of vaccines, distribution, number of intensive care beds, and number of tests.

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 coronavirus better than others.

Originally published here.

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.

Originally published here.

The UAE was named as the second most resilient country in the world for its response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Only Israel ranked higher in the Pandemic Resilience Index 2021, which was compiled by the Consumer Choice Centre (CCC), a non-profit organisation representing the rights of consumers in more than 100 countries.

The CCC report, using data available on March 31, aimed to provide an overview of global health system preparedness for the Covid-19 crisis.

It singled out the UAE for performing significantly better than EU countries with its vaccination rollout, despite starting just 10 days earlier.

“The UAE is a country that managed to quickly kick off its vaccination programme which saw more than 50 per cent of its population vaccinated. Its extensive testing also tops the ranking,” said the report’s authors, Fred Roeder, CCC managing director and CCC research manager Maria Chaplia.

They highlighted the UAE’s Covid-19 testing average of 8.29 per 1,000 people each day was third to Cyprus and Luxembourg, and well ahead of countries such as Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary, France and Italy.

“The pandemic has put health systems globally to an emergency test and exposed both their strong and weak sides,” the report said.

“In particular, that concerns hospital capacity, planning abilities, and the existence of a regulatory system that is able to act fast and efficiently when it comes to testing and vaccination.”

The report measured 40 countries on “vaccination approval, its drive, and time lags that have put brakes on it, critical care bed capacity, and mass testing”.

Israel and the UAE were the only two countries to be given the top rating, ahead of the US, the UK and Germany, who were rated as being “above average”.

The country with the lowest score was Ukraine, with New Zealand also named in the lowest section.

“Countries that started testing and then vaccinating as soon as possible, and who had sufficient, or close to sufficient, intensive care bed capacity, managed to better contain [the] coronavirus,” the report said.

Originally published here.