ARTICLE | Countries & Covid Response
An Analysis
Pandemic Response in US, NZ & India
Ashley Paul Reporter
The Covid-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on the overall working of almost every country in the world. However, some claim to perform better than other countries while some claim so based simply on statistics from their own country. But can we actually compare the performance of two or more countries in handling the Covid-19 pandemic?
T
he onset of the Covid-19 pandemic has brought with it a wave of experts and policy makers, eagerly working on comparisons between performance of governments and impact of the pandemic in different countries. However, often, the countries in question have almost nothing in common. Nonetheless, the comparisons are still carried out and conclusions are widely circulated. The most recent example of such an extreme comparison is that of the world’s first Covid-19-free country – New Zealand. The Oceanic island nation off the coast of Australia has successfully managed to control the spread of Covid-19 and is ready to reopen businesses and offices and allow its citizens to roam freely, once again. However, almost every developed and developing country has had comparisons being made between New Zealand and themselves, without considering the countless differences between them. While there are various factors that make comparison between many countries invalid, in many cases, different countries can learn from other countries how to
better handle a crisis. To explain this, we take the example of New Zealand, India and the United States of America. The three countries have been affected by Covid-19 since January 2020. However, the performance of all three countries is widely different from each other. New Zealand became the world’s first country to be free of Covid-19. On the other hand, the US, with a GDP that is 98.6 times that of New Zealand, is still struggling to bring the daily increase in active Covid-19 cases under control. Similar is the case with India. However, a number of reasons make the situation in the three countries very different.
How are they different?
The very first factor that makes them incomparable is the forms of government and distribution of decision-making powers amongst different levels of the government. In the USA, the government follows a federal, presidential form of government and the law of the constitution is supreme. Thus, the administrative and legislative powers are widely and clearly distributed between the President, the Congress and the state governments in the US. In New
Statistical comparison: New Zealand, India & the US New Zealand Population (2020) in millions 4.821
India
USA
1379.86
330.98
GDP (2019) Billion USD
215
2,800
21,200
Per Capita Income (2018) USD
38,000
2,104
54,579
Per capita public exp on health (2019) USD
3,937.20
21.91
10,739
Public exp on health (2017) % of GDP
9.17
1.28
17.061
Hospital Beds per thousand people (2018)
2.61
0.53
2.9
Population Density per square km (2018)
18
455
36
34 June 2020 | www.urbanupdate.in
Zealand, which is a unitary, constitutional monarchy, the state is ruled by a monarch (presently Queen Elizabeth II), whose role is carried out by the Governor General. In both these forms of government, despite having huge disparities, the effectiveness of the government in handling a crisis is enhanced as the roles of different government bodies is pre-defined. However, India, although largely federal, often has a conflict in implementing constitutional roles due to vast misunderstandings and simultaneous power politics played by different governments. This confusion and shortcoming becomes even more pronounced during a crisis when different government bodies keep passing the buck of responsibility, thereby delaying response time and effectiveness of a ‘prompt response’. Apart from this, the per capita incomes of the three countries portray huge variations. A higher per capita income, as is the case with New Zealand and the US, simply means that residents of the country have a higher capacity to spend on healthcare, personal hygiene and on maintaining their immunity. In the case of a pandemic, these capabilities can mean the difference between life and death. India’s much lower per capita income restricts the ability of its people to spend on healthcare. Moreover, the population density in India is nearly 455 persons per square kilometer. This number reduces to 36 persons in the US and to just 18 persons in New Zealand. This would mean that the Indian government has a lot less space, particularly in its metropolises, to come up with impromptu emergency services. In the case of Covid-19, it would also mean that maintaining social distancing
