KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 9 — Malaysia has been ranked 13th in the latest Nikkei Covid-19 Recovery Index after almost two years of battling the Covid-19 pandemic, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said.

In a post on Facebook tonight, he said the Nikkei Covid-19 Recovery Index highlights a divide between Asia and the West, with many countries having a surge of cases namely the Omicron variant in a short period of time.

Based on the Nikkei Covid-19 Recovery Index as of December 31, 2021, Malaysia is ranked number 13 with a total score of 66.5, while Bahrain sits at the top with a total score of 82.0, with Chile second at 76.5 and Taiwan ranking third at 75.5.

According to its website, the Nikkei Covid-19 Recovery Index ranks about 120 countries or regions on infection management, vaccine rollouts and social mobility.

A higher ranking indicates a country or region is closer to recovery with its low numbers of confirmed Covid-19 cases, better vaccination rates and less stringent social distancing measures; data sources include Our World in Data, Google Covid-19 Community Mobility Reports, Oxford Covid-19 Government Response Tracker Cirium, and Nikkei Asia research.

Malaysia recorded 2,714 recoveries today, taking the total number of recovery cases to 2,714,614 since the pandemic hit the country in February 2020.

Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham said Malaysia is now ranked sixth in the Global Covid Index (GCI), which was developed with input from various international bodies, including the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Based on the GCI, Malaysia ranked number six with a recovery rating of five and recovery index of 78.74, while Singapore ranked number one with 82.88 recovery index, followed by South Korea (82.71) and Taiwan (80.49) with all sharing the same recovery rating of five. — Bernama