By Lee Jihae

Korea this month is fifth in Bloomberg's monthly Covid Resilience Ranking.

The U.S. business news service on May 25 said Korea this month placed fifth among 53 countries in COVID-19 resilience.

Up from sixth last month, Korea's standing is the highest since fourth in November last year, when the ranking debuted.

Bloomberg said that while Korea has a relatively low vaccination rate of 5.4%, it has 38 deaths per million people, the tenth lowest worldwide.

The nation last month also had the 12th-lowest number of infections per 100,000 people with 34.

Bloomberg said democratic countries accounted for the majority of the ranking's top ten, adding that "a high degree of trust and societal compliance" are necessary to stem the pandemic.

"When citizens have faith in the authorities and their guidance, lockdowns may not be needed at all, as Japan and South Korea showed through most of 2020," it added.

New Zealand rose from second to No. 1 in the rankings this month, followed by April's leader Singapore.

Australia stayed third and Israel remained fourth. The U.K. rose seven notches to 11th thanks to rapid vaccination and the U.S. jumped four places to 13th.

The rankings of most Asian countries fell on the list. Japan dropped seven spots to 14th, Taiwan ten to 15th and Vietnam 12 to 23rd.

On a scale of 100, the Bloomberg list ranks a country's resilience to the coronavirus based on the number of infections per 100,000 people, fatality rate, number of deaths per million, lockdown intensity and economic growth prospects.

jihlee08@korea.kr