CORONAVIRUS/Taiwan ranked 3rd worldwide for COVID-19 performance

Taipei, Jan. 28 (CNA) Taiwan has been listed among the top three countries in the world for its successful handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, ranking third behind New Zealand and Vietnam, according to an index published Thursday by the Lowry Institute of Australia.

The think tank evaluated the response of 98 countries and territories, excluding China, to the pandemic, and ranked them based on their aggregate and per capita number of COVID-19 cases and deaths, as well as their rate of testing, using a 14-day rolling average.

In the COVID Performance Index, Taiwan received a score of 86.4, behind only New Zealand and Vietnam, which scored 94.4 and 90.8, respectively, to top the list.

The index was compiled using publicly available and comparable data of 98 countries and territories in the 36 weeks after they confirmed their 100th case of COVID-19, with the data valid up to Jan. 9, 2021, according to the think tank.

China was not included in the ranking because of a lack of publicly available data on testing, and Taiwan was assessed separately, the institute said.

As of Thursday, Taiwan had recorded 895 cases of COVID-19, with seven fatalities, according to the country's Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).

In the Lowry Institute's COVID Performance Index, the other countries in the top 10 were Thailand, with a score of 84.2, Cyprus (83.3), Rwanda (80.8), Iceland (80.1), Australia (77.9), Latvia (77.5) and Sri Lanka (76.8).

At the bottom of the list were Chile (22.0), Ukraine (20.7), Oman (20.3), Panama (19.7), Bolivia (18.9), the United States (17.3), Iran (15.9), Colombia (7.7), Mexico (6.5) and Brazil (4.3).

According to the institute, the COVID-19 performance of countries was not as closely linked to levels of economic development or types of political systems as was often assumed or publicized.

Certain structural factors, however, seemed more closely associated with positive outcomes, as smaller countries, for example, proved more agile than most of the bigger ones in handling the health crisis, the institute said.

To date, there have been 100,776,693 confirmed cases of COVID-19 around the globe, with 2,178,170 deaths, CECC data shows.