The 100 safest countries in the world for COVID-19

NEW JERSEY: Switzerland is the safest country in the world right now for COVID-19. South Sudan is, according to a massive 250-page report, the most dangerous nation, foreign media reported.

The United States? It ranks number 58, just behind Romania, and two places ahead of Russia.

The report is based on 130 quantitative and qualitative parameters and over 11,400 data points in categories like quarantine efficiency, monitoring and detection, health readiness, and government efficiency. It’s by the Deep Knowledge Group, a consortium of companies and nonprofits owned by Deep Knowledge Ventures, an investment firm founded in 2014 in Hong Kong

Interestingly, there’s been significant change in the safety rankings through the months of the pandemic.

Initially, countries that could react quickly to crises and had high levels of emergency preparedness ranked highest. Now countries with resilient economies are ranking higher.

“Switzerland and Germany achieve the #1 and #2 positions in this new special case study specifically because of their economy’s resilience, and due to the careful ways in which they are attempting to relax lockdown and economic freezing mandates in a fact and science-based manner, without sacrificing public health and safety,” the study says.

Here are the top 100 countries by COVID-19 safety, according to the Deep Knowledge Group:

Switzerland, Germany, Israel, Singapore, Japan, Austria, China, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, United Arab Emirates, Canada, Hong Kong, Norway, Denmark, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, Hungary, Netherlands, Vietnam, Kuwait, Iceland, Bahrain, Finland, Luxembourg, Qatar, Liechtenstein, Poland, Lithuania, Malaysia, Latvia, Slovenia, Oman, Greece, Estonia, Croatia, Turkey, Ireland, Georgia, Chile, Montenegro, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Malta, Spain, Portugal, Thailand, Bulgaria, Greenland, Mexico, Uruguay, Vatican City, Italy, Serbia, Philippines, India, Romania, USA, Slovak Republic, Russia, France, Argentina, Belarus, Monaco, Sweden, Ukraine, Gibraltar, United Kingdom, South Africa, San Marino, Kazakhstan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iran, Ecuador, Azerbaijan, Mongolia, Belgium, Andorra, Cayman Islands, Armenia, Moldova, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Tunisia, Albania, Jordan, Panama, Brazil, Morocco, Algeria, Honduras, Paraguay, Peru, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Bahamas

It’s important to note that this is just one organization’s assessment of risk, and that risk within different regions inside nations will differ as well. For example, New York City was an epicenter of COVID-19 risk a month ago, while Montana stayed, relatively speaking, much safer.

The highest-risk regions right now, according to the report are Sub-Saharan Africa and South America, as well as some countries in the Middle East and Asia Pacific.