Some countries have weathered the global pandemic better than others.
The same goes for cities.
But understanding how cities fare in the fight against Covid is more complicated than comparing infection rates and mask rules.
London-based analytics agency Deep Knowledge Analytics (DKA) examined 114 variables across five categories of pandemic response: economic resilience, governance, health care, quarantines and vaccinations.
The results were published in September in a 116-page report entitled “Covid-19 City Safety Ranking Q2 / 2021”.
In total, the DKA analyzed 8,200 data points – compared to 1,250 in its first city report published in March – that touched on issues ranging from quarantine lengths to economic support packages and civic resistance among residents.
The top 50 cities
The DKA analyzed 72 cities and rated the top 50 with scores.
- Abu Dhabi: 73.16 – No. 1 in vaccination rate
- Singapore: 71.69 – # 1 in economic resilience
- Seoul: 71.41 – # 1 in health management
- Tel Aviv-Yafo: 67.28
- Dubai: 67.02
- Toronto: 65.40
- Sydney: 65.24
- Zurich: 65.23
- Dublin: 64.75
- Ottawa: 64.58 – # 1 in Government Efficiency
- London: 64.14
- Amsterdam: 63.75
- Berlin: 63.31
- Tokyo: 63.09
- Copenhagen: 62.93
- Beijing: 62.81 – No. 1 in quarantine efficiency
- New York: 62.50
- Shanghai: 61.83
- Auckland: 61.47
- Brussels: 60.63
- Helsinki: 60.26
- Wellington: 60.02
- Bern: 59.98
- Hong Kong: 59.45
- Los Angeles: 59.40
- Stockholm: 58.92
- Canberra: 58.66
- Oslo: 58.62
- Jerusalem: 58.34
- Warsaw: 58.30
- Riyadh: 57.47
- Madrid: 57.34
- Vienna: 56.45
- Valletta: 56.37
- Budapest: 56.20
- Doha: 55.82
- Moscow: 55.50
- Paris: 54.09
- Prague: 53.75
- Rome: 53.61
- Kuala Lumpur: 53.45
- Zagreb: 53.01
- Bratislava: 52.43
- Hanoi: 51.68
- Manila: 51.61
- Athens: 51.58
- Jakarta: 51.43
- Ankara: 51.08
- Bucharest: 50.93
Lisbon, Portugal landed in 50th place with a score of 50.37, foiled by a rocky vaccine launch in the first half of 2021. Portugal now has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, at nearly 86% of the country’s population, which has received two doses, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
Cities like Istanbul, Johannesburg, Bangkok, New Delhi, Cairo, Mexico City and Baghdad were analyzed but did not make it into the top 50 list.
Obviously, many people who live in communities high on the DKA’s list will disagree with their city’s top position. Reports of anger and confusion over Covid-19 safety measures and vaccination mandates have led to large-scale protests in Europe and the US and a rejection of so-called “Zero Covid” strategies in parts of Asia and Australia.
While government satisfaction rates rose in Seoul and Abu Dhabi, they fell in 80% of the cities analyzed during the pandemic, according to the report.
The average for all cities was 55.36 out of a possible 100 points, which suggests that “every city still has room for improvement,” said DKA director Alexei Cresniov.
Which top cities got it right
Cities that ranked high on the list tended to act early and quickly, Cresniov said.
Countries with response plans to the recent health crises – such as Singapore, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates – were better prepared, according to the report. Italy, on the other hand, has a pandemic plan but has not implemented it, said Cresniov.
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Courtesy of Deep Knowledge Analytics
Cities that already had contract tracking, telemedicine, and vaccination distribution technologies, or that were developing quickly, topped the list.
Metropolitan areas in countries with authoritarian governments or in places that have put strict measures in place to combat the pandemic are also valued, although a balance is required as the situation evolves, Cresniov said.
“In the later stages, the main thing is the balance … between lockdown and your population’s resources,” he said, adding that lockdowns began to fail as the economic and psychological damage increased.
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Courtesy of Deep Knowledge Analytics
After all, populations who trust their local governments are doing better off fighting the coronavirus, Cresniov said.
This is evident in both Abu Dhabi and Asia in general, where he said, “When the government said there was a pandemic and ‘please people stay home’, people obeyed.”
Conversely, the report’s lack of trust hampered pandemic responses in Hong Kong, as well as in Russia and liberal democracies in the West such as the United States, Canada and many European countries, he said.
Main results
The report also found that:
- Globally, the pandemic showed poor coordination between national governments and local authorities.
- No city had the health care capacity to support the massive surge in diseases caused by the pandemic.
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Courtesy of Deep Knowledge Analytics
- Only 10% of cities made “thoughtful plans” to provide economic support to citizens and businesses. Tetiana Humeniuk, head of analytics at DKA, cited London, Berlin and Toronto as examples of cities where these are present.
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Courtesy of Deep Knowledge Analytics
- Only 25% of cities have taken steps to flatten the curve effectively and quickly, while only 11% of cities have been thoroughly tested and contracted. These measures, along with quarantines, are “key to fighting a pandemic,” according to the report, which acknowledged that contract tracking apps are controversial, but “this method has worked.”
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Courtesy of Deep Knowledge Analytics
- According to the study, only 17% of cities have a thorough post-Covid strategy.
- Countries around the world have responded to the pandemic more individually than collectively, according to the report.
