Covid 19 Delta outbreak: New Zealand slips from 1st to 38th place in the world to live during pandemic

September 29 2021 There are a "sobering" 45 new Covid cases in the community today, including 12 unlinked 'mystery' cases. All of today's cases are in Auckland.

New Zealand has slipped in a new global ranking from number one to the 38th best country to live during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The most recent installment of media outlet Bloomberg's Covid Resilience Rankings have been released - and the top of the list is now dominated by European countries.

Back in November 2020, New Zealand claimed the number one spot.

It has now has fallen behind past Covid-19 hotspots such as Brazil and the United States of America. Back in August it also suffered a blow ranking in at 29th.

"No 1 at the rankings inception last November, New Zealand fell nine spots from August to No 38," Bloomberg reported.

"A Delta incursion after months virus-free has left the country in varying degrees of lockdown, still seeking to stamp out infections as it strives to boost vaccination levels."

According to Bloomberg, the best place to be amid the ongoing Delta outbreak is Ireland, which has a similar population to New Zealand.

Ireland reported 1049 cases on Monday with a total of 5209 deaths since the pandemic started.

Bloomberg credited the country's "startling turnaround" in part to a Europe-wide strategy involving limiting quarantine-free to people who are fully vaccinated or who have proved they have recovered from the virus.

"Even as the peak summer travel season unfolded alongside Delta's spread, Ireland and places like Spain, the Netherlands and Finland held down serious illness and deaths through pioneering moves to largely limit quarantine-free entry to immunised people," the report said.

"Bestowing more domestic freedoms on the inoculated helped boost vaccination levels to some of the highest in the world - over 90 per cent of Ireland's adult population has received two shots - while allowing social activity to resume safely."

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Alongside ranking countries best to worst, the report also gave each country a Resilience Ranking, which provides a monthly "snapshot" of which of the world's 53 biggest economies are handling the virus best.

Twelve factors taken into account include vaccination coverage, GDP and progress towards easing border restrictions.

New Zealand received a overall score of 59.6 per cent, compared with Ireland's 79.4.

New Zealand was one of a number of Asia-Pacific nations to drop, with Bloomberg saying the region is "faltering in the era of vaccination".

"Not only are their strict measures less effective in the face of Delta, former top rankers in the region are also grappling with how to reopen after such a long period of isolationist border curbs."

Despite daily Covid-19 cases remaining in the thousands, the United Kingdom climbed six places to No 16 after the nation eased travel curbs for fully vaccinated people.

Norway also saw a significant drop - from No 1 back in August to No 10.

Here in New Zealand, today a "sobering" 45 new Covid cases in the community were announced.

Director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said it was the largest number of cases the country had recorded in some time. All of today's cases are in Auckland.

A total of 33 are household or close contacts of existing cases and weren't infectious in the community, while 12 remain unlinked.