A global guide to combating the coronavirus
From Germany to Iceland to Africa there are many paths to success in the fight to contain the virus causing Covid-19.
With 30,000 dead around the world, and no end in sight to the exponential growth in coronavirus cases, debate is raging about whether democracies and decentralized governments are capable of containing the virus.
A POLITICO survey of global best practices shows that while democracy is no barrier to progress, what matters most is investments in fundamentals. On the health front that means screening, testing, tracing, protective equipment, and hospital beds. On the economic front it means preventing lay-offs and bankruptcies through both government finance and collaborations between banks, employers and unions.
This list excludes paid sick leave as a factor because 179 countries have some form of government-mandated paid sick leave, including China and India, with United States the only exception among major countries.
Here’s a guide to who’s doing best and why.
Germany — All around excellence
Based on known infections, Germany has one of the lowest death rates world-wide. Contributing factors include wider testing, but Europe’s most populous country also has the most restrictive social gathering rules (no more than two people may meet outside their homes). Germany may also have the best prepared health care system overall, with close to the best ratios of intensive care beds, doctors and nurses per 100,000 people. It also has six to seven times the ratio of ICU beds as Europe’s poorest performing countries including Portugal, Netherlands, Sweden, U.K., and Greece, and is rolling out a test that provides results in less than three hours.
Germany’s leader Angela Merkel, herself a scientist, took an early and calm leadership role in communicating about the virus, giving her first unscheduled nationally televised speech in the 15 years of her premiership. Germany is also determined to defend its struggling companies, including famed automakers Mercedes Benz and Volkswagen, against foreign takeover attempts, via a $610 billion bailout fund to take stakes in critical industries.
Taiwan — Screening masters
The country began testing international arrivals for the virus on December 31, 2019. Hospitals began testing for the virus in the third week of January, and a national command center was established on January 20. Border controls began February 6, with arrivals from badly affected areas forced into quarantine whether they had symptoms or not. The government instituted price caps on face masks to maximize the number of people wearing them, and is taking the temperature of people as they enter public buildings, helping the country avoid an extensive lock-down.
Iceland — Random screening
About one in every 25 people in Iceland has been tested, the highest rate in the world, according to a meticulously transparent government website that operates in nine languages. Iceland had not only tested people with symptoms, but all arrivals in the country since February. And the government is conducting random testing to check the true spread of asymptomatic carriers of the virus (around 6 percent of the randomly tested people tested positive). Tests have been available since March 14 to any Iceland resident who wants them.
South Korea — Hospital and testing capacity
South Korea has been lauded for its widespread testing (377,000 tests run as of March 27), helping it to “flatten the curve” of infection rates in the country. But South Korea has another advantage up its sleeve: one of the highest ratios of general hospital beds in the world at 12.3 per thousand people. While Japan has slightly more beds (13 per thousand), it also has a much older population (median age 47) putting more demand on that capacity. Like Singapore and Israel, South Korea is tracking and publishing the movements of virus carriers, even before they show symptoms.
United Kingdom — Testing breakthroughs
British researchers are close to releasing finger prick tests that would demonstrate if a person has developed coronavirus antibodies and would therefore be safe to return to work and public activity. Professor Sharon Peacock of Public Health England's National Infection Service told members of Parliament on Wednesday that the kits are in final testing stages, ahead of possible mass distribution next week. Boris Johnson described the tests as a “total game-changer.”
Mologic, whose co-founder Paul Davis developed the Clearblue pregnancy test, is working with U.K. government money and the Pasteur Institute in Dakar, Senegal to rush out a $1 test that delivers results in 10 minutes, aimed at rapid dissemination across Africa.
Singapore — Detailed tracing
Having learned from the SARS crisis last decade, Singapore has detailed contract tracing in place, and practices a radical form of transparency which publishes the specific locations of virus carriers. Residents of Singapore can download an app called TraceTogether which alerts them when they are approaching a person or building housing a person or people with the virus. The government says all personal data is encrypted and has made the TraceTogether source code freely available to developers who wish to copy it in their own jurisdiction.
United States — Intensive care beds and remote working
The U.S. maintains a world-leading ratio of intensive care beds. While recent global data is sparse, papers from 2012 and 2015, show the U.S., along with Germany ranks highest in the world in intensive care beds per capita. Turkey’s government recently claimed a better ratio, which POLITICO was unable to verify through independent research.
American companies have also led the charge in getting people to work from home. The U.S. is home to many of the world’s largest companies, including tech firms like Zoom and Slack that have pioneered remote working tools. The first major American outbreak was identified in Washington, home to two of the globe's largest companies, Amazon and Microsoft, while California’s Silicon Valley was among the first to institute “shelter in place” orders.
The U.S. has also assembled the world's biggest collection of coronavirus research: 44,000 papers in one place.
Czech Republic — Compulsary masks
Prime Minister Andris Babis addresses the nation wearing a blue mask, and on March 18 his government made masks compulsory when out in public, with mask evaders subject to a $410 fine. That sent Czechs into a DIY sewing overdrive, and established networks for the distribution of masks. Czechs managed to rack up more than 1,000 confirmed cases before a death was recorded earlier this week.
Denmark — Worker and small business support
In Denmark’s high-wage, high-tax economy, mass layoffs and bankruptcies are a political non-starter. With that in mind, the left-leaning government convened employers and unions mid-March and within 24 hours won support for a plan to pay 90 percent of wages of any casual worker sent home due to coronavirus impacts (up to a maximum $3,800 per month), and 75 percent of the wages of any permanent employee (up to $3,350). Small businesses ordered to close due to the outbreak may also claim up to 100 percent of their expenses, such as rent. The total cost may be around 13 percent of Danish GDP, or 25 percent of the government’s tax take.
Italy — Mortgage and small business debt pause
While Italy has struggled to contain the virus and has the highest total number of deaths in Europe, the Italian government has gotten one thing right. It struck a deal with the country’s banks two weeks ago to pause big debt payment obligations – in particular mortgages and loans held by small businesses.
China — Online learning
Since February 120 million Chinese students have had access to learning material through live television broadcasts. The Chinese government rushed out a national online learning platform on February 17, “providing a full range of teaching materials and courses for students from the first grade in junior school to the third grade of high school,” South China Morning Post reported. Online learning companies including TAL Education and VIPKID have offered millions of free courses to local students.
Belgium — Expert briefings, targeted school closures
Belgians are famous for staying calm in a crisis, and for their health system. Those attributes have been on display in the home of NATO and the European Union as the coronavirus has spread. Politicians have cleared the way for experts to run the country’s daily pandemic briefing, which helps to quash conspiracy theories and misinformation. A decision to keep schools open to the children of health-care workers and those who would otherwise be stuck with grandparents has kept the country’s healthcare system running — ultimately reducing the number of older Belgians needing care.
Australia — Special shopping hours
While leaders have made a number of serious errors, including allowing Australians to pack city beaches last week (it’s the tail end of summer) and authorizing passengers from a cruise liner to move about freely about Sydney, the national government was also the first to get ahead of bad economic news with a stimulus package on March 11. And it has had great success with a system that reserves the first hour of supermarket shopping for the elderly, disabled and frontline health workers.
Liberia — Creative public messages
Liberian President George Weah has released a pandemic-themed music single. “Liberia is a country where a majority of the people don’t have access to internet and Facebook, but everyone listens to radio,” said Weah’s spokesman Solo Kelgbeh. He followed in the footsteps of Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine who released a song urging the nation to sanitize.