Pakistan third in The Economist’s ‘return to normal’ index

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has ranked third in The Economist’s Global Normalcy Index, out of 50 countries. The Economist’s “normalcy index” aims to determine which countries are returning to their pre-pandemic levels, by grading each country using eight indicators: Time not at home, retail, office use, public transport, road traffic, flights, cinema and sports attendance.

The global normalcy index plummeted in March 2020, states the report, as many countries imposed restrictions on the movement of their citizens. “Today it stands at 66 (out of 100) suggesting that the world has traveled roughly half of the way back to pre-pandemic life,” The Economist adds.

The pre-pandemic level of activity has been set at a score of 100, where Pakistan has ranked third, with 84.4 out of 100. While Hong Kong tops the list with a ranking of 96.3 and New Zealand has ranked in second with 87.8.

“Hong Kong and New Zealand – two places that have implemented effective measures against the coronavirus and suffered relatively few deaths – are currently at the top of our tables,” the report states.

In the category of “retail”, “office use”, “time not spent at home” and “public transport”, Pakistan ranked over 100. However, in the category of “flights” and “cinema” it scored low.

On June 28, Pakistan’s National Command and Operation Centre further relaxed restrictions, allowing indoor dinning for the first time since November 2020, as well as indoor wedding events with vaccinated guests and it also opened cinemas. Pakistan has a total of 963,660 coronavirus cases as of July 5 and 22,427 people have died from the deadly disease.