An elderly man on the afternoon of April 14 is vaccinated at a medical institution in Seoul on the first day of the fourth round of vaccinations against COVID-19 for senior citizens aged 60 or older.

By Anais Faure

Photo = Yonhap News
Graphs = Screenshots from Bloomberg's Covid Resilience Ranking

Korea for the first time has topped Bloomberg's monthly "Covid Resilience Ranking," which rates which countries are the best to be in during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bloomberg through its website on June 29 announced that Korea finished five spots higher from May in the June rankings of 53 countries.

Released monthly since November 2020, the rankings are based on 11 indicators in three sectors: reopening progress, COVID status and quality of life. The June rankings are the last of their kind.

Korea's indicators improved in COVID status and quality of life, including measures for "Covid cases per 100,000 people over the past month" and "Covid deaths as a share of cases over the past three months." All indicators in quality of life were evaluated positively, and all in reopening progress improved except for "Percentage change in flight capacity scheduled in the past four weeks compared to the same period prior to the pandemic."

Bloomberg noted that about 90% of the Korean population had been vaccinated.

Korea ranked fourth on the first list released in November 2020 and remained among the top ranked over the period. "It plummeted in May last year and fell to 28th in March this year as the number of confirmed cases reached a record high." The country's status went on to see an upward curve to top the final rankings.

Korea topped Bloomberg's "Covid Resilience Ranking" in June this year. 

In the June rankings, Korea was followed by the United Arab Emirates and Ireland. Norway, which had ranked first for three consecutive months since March, fell to fourth.

Bloomberg said the top-ranked countries implemented strategies such as accepting coexistence with the coronavirus, aggressively vaccinating the most vulnerable people, and attempting to resume economic and social activities.

Korea generally remained among the top performers in the "Covid Resilience Ranking" survey of Bloomberg from November 2020 to last month, and topped the list in the final survey. The blue line shows Korea’s finishes in the rankings.