Manama Bahrain remained among the world’s top countries on the Nikkei’s COVID-19 Recovery Index for October, as the Kingdom continues to make great improvements and to consolidate its achievements in confronting the pandemic and returning to a normal way of life.

The index, first published in July, assesses 121 countries and regions in terms of COVID recovery by calculating a score between 0 and 90 based on nine factors divided into three categories: infection management, vaccine rollouts, and mobility.

The higher the ranking, the closer a country is to recovery — with low infections, higher inoculation rates and less-strict social distancing measures.

Bahrain scored 70%, behind the United Arab Emirates (74%), Chile (73%) and Malta (70.5%) and level with Saudi Arabia (70%). Japan and Colombia follow with 69%.

On November 1, Bahrain’s health regulatory authority said it approved the emergency use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children in the 5 to 11 age group.

The decision follows a comprehensive evaluation of the data provided by Pfizer-BioNTech, carried out by the National Health Regulatory Authority’s Clinical Trials Committee and the Ministry of Health’s Vaccination Committee.

According to Nickel, the methodology for the latest ranking was adjusted to reflect vaccination progress worldwide.

Instead of looking at the share of people who have received at least one dose, they are now grading countries and regions based on the share of people who have been fully vaccinated with two shots, as one of the subcategories for vaccinations.

This adjustment only marginally changed the scores, so the results remain comparable with previous rankings, Nikkei said.

The score is the sum of three constituent categories and nine subcategories. Each subcategory has a maximum score of 10.

Infection management includes confirmed cases of COVID-19 versus peak case count, confirmed cases per capita and tests per case.

Vaccine rollouts cover total vaccine doses given per capita, new vaccine doses given per capita, and share of people who have been fully vaccinated.

Mobility deals with community mobility, Oxford stringency index, and flight activities.

Source: Bahrain News Agency