KUALA LUMPUR, March 5 — Malaysia has slid down from its previous best-ever ranking at the 10th spot in January, and has now hit the 67th spot in February amid the wave of new cases driven by the Omicron variant, the latest Nikkei Covid-19 Recovery Index showed.

In the global index ranking of 121 countries or regions, Malaysia as of January 31 had achieved its best-ever rank at the 10th spot with its score of 67.0. Apart from second-ranked Cambodia at that time, Malaysia was ahead of its Southeast Asia peers including Singapore.

In the latest index as of February 28 however, Malaysia declined to the 67th spot with a score of 53.0, sharing the same spot and scores with Liechtenstein, Nicaragua and Switzerland.

While Cambodia had also slid down from its second spot and score of 78 for January to the 31st spot with a score of 62 for February (sharing the same spot and scores with Bahrain, Canada, Colombia, France, Sweden), it remained ahead of Malaysia.

With Malaysia’s decline in February, it is now behind Singapore (47th spot with score of 59), but still ahead of other Southeast Asian peers in the index ― the Philippines (85th spot, score 49), Thailand (85th spot, score 49), Vietnam (94th spot, score 47.5), Laos (96th spot, score 47), Myanmar (110th spot, score 41.5), and Indonesia (118th spot, score 39).

In commenting on Cambodia’s and Malaysia’s lower rankings in the index as of February 28, business publication Nikkei Asia — which released the latest index yesterday — noted that both countries had suffered new waves of Covid-19 cases driven by the Omicron variant of the virus.

As for the top 10 countries in the latest index as of February 28, they are United Arab Emirates (1st spot, score 81), China (2nd spot, score 79), Taiwan (3rd spot, score 76.5), Saudi Arabia (4th spot, score 71.5), Malta and Portugal both at 5th spot with a score of 71, Belgium (7th spot, score 70), Dominican Republic (8th spot, score 69.5), Qatar (9th spot, score 69) and Nepal (10th spot, score 66.5).

The Nikkei Covid-19 Recovery Index ranks the countries and regions on their infection management, vaccine rollouts and social mobility, with a higher ranking indicating that a country is closer to recovery with its low numbers of confirmed Covid-19 cases, better vaccination rates and less stringent social distancing measures.

The index’s data sources include Our World in Data, Google Covid-19 Community Mobility Reports, Oxford Covid-19 Government Response Tracker, Cirium and Nikkei Asia research.

Back in 2021, Malaysia had ranked 114 with a score of 29 (as of June 30), and again at 114 with a score of 30 (as of July 31), and at 115 with a score of 34 (as of August 31), before improving to the 102nd spot with a score of 41.5 (as of September 30), and leaping to the 50th spot with a score of 54.5 (as of October 31).

Falling slightly to the 57th spot with a score of 53.5 as of November 30, 2021, Malaysia again made a huge leap when it rose to the 13th spot with a score of 66.5 (as of December 31, 2021) and again to its best-ever ranking at 10th spot and score of 67 (as of January 31 this year).

As a quick comparison of snapshots of Covid-19 figures in Malaysia, the country on December 31, 2021, recorded 3,573 new cases with a cumulative total of 2,758,086 cases since the pandemic began, and on January 31 this year recorded 4,774 new cases with a cumulative total of 2,870,758 cases.

On February 28, Malaysia reported 24,466 new Covid-19 cases recorded on February 27 with a cumulative total of 3,419,636 cases. The figure of daily recovered cases on February 27 (as reported on February 28) was also high at 22,380, with a recovery rate of 90.2 per cent as shown by the cumulative total of 3,085,940 recovered patients.

Today, Malaysia reported yesterday’s figures, with 33,209 new Covid-19 cases (cumulative of 3,561,766 cases), and recoveries of 26,352 cases (cumulative recovered cases at 3,223,650 or 90.5 recovery rate).

Based on the Health Ministry’s CovidNow website on records as of March 4, a total of 83 per cent of Malaysia’s total population have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccination. Meanwhile, 78.9 per cent of Malaysia’s total population had received two doses, while 45.8 per cent had already received their booster shot.

If looked at according to age groups, for Malaysia’s adult population or those aged 18 and above, 98.8 per cent had received at least one dose, 97.6 per cent had received two doses, and 63.5 per cent had also received their booster shot as of March 4.

For adolescents or those aged 12 to 17, 93.2 per cent of them in Malaysia had received at least one dose, while 90.1 per cent had received two doses. For children aged 5 to 11, 27.4 per cent of them in Malaysia had received at least one dose.