Kashmir Digits

Pakistan has been ranked third in The Economist’s Global Normalcy Index, out of 50 countries.

Britain’s The Economist’s “normalcy index” aims to determine which countries are returning to their pre-pandemic levels, by grading each country using eight indicators: Time not at home, retail, office use, public transport, road traffic, flights, cinema and sports attendance.

Hong Kong tops the list with a ranking of 96.3 and New Zealand has ranked in second with 87.8.

“Hong Kong and New Zealand – two places that have implemented effective measures against the coronavirus and suffered relatively few deaths – are currently at the top of our tables,” the report states.

In the category of “retail”, “office use”, “time not spent at home” and “public transport”, Pakistan ranked over 100.

Among other countries, China is ranked 19th with a score of 72.9 and India — which has been struggling in face of the pandemic after a disastrous outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant — is ranked 48 with a score of 46.5.

South Korea and Colombia are at the bottom, each having an overall score of zero.

Prime Minister Imran Khan congratulated the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) — the nerve centre of Pakistan’s coronavirus response.

Prime Minister Imran Khan congratulated the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) — the nerve centre of Pakistan’s coronavirus response — the team of the Ehsaas Programme and the State Bank of Pakistan.

Sharing a screenshot of the index on Wednesday, Prime Minister Imran Khan tweeted: “Congratulations to NCOC members, Ehsaas team & State Bank of Pakistan for effective response to Covid-19 pandemic; and above all thanks to the mercy of Almighty Allah.