Jakarta (Indonesia Window) – Indonesia ranks 85th in the world out of 98 countries in handling the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a survey by Australian think tank Lowy Institute.

Indonesia scored an average of 24.7, one level above India with a score of 24.3 and below Bangladesh with a score of 24.9.

The Lowy Institute's assessment of the performance of handling COVID-19 in 98 countries is based on six parameters measured in 36 weeks after confirmed COVID-19 reached 100 cases in each country.

The measurements use data available until January 9, 2021.

The institute headquartered in Sydney measures daily figures for COVID-19 every fourteen days based on the number of confirmed cases; confirmed deaths; confirmed cases per million people; confirmed deaths per million people; confirmed cases as part of tests; and the number of tests per thousand people.

The average of all indicators is then calculated for each country in each period, and normalized to produce a score from 0 (worst performance) to 100 (best performance).

Collectively, these indicators show how well or poorly these countries manage the pandemic in the 36 weeks after a confirmed COVID-19 case.

New Zealand, Vietnam, Taiwan, Thailand and Cyprus are the top five countries with the best performance in handling COVID-19, each with a score of 94.4; 90.8; 86.4; 84.2; and 83.3.

Meanwhile, Colombia (7.7), Mexico (6.5) and Brazil (4.3) were in the last three positions.

As of Sunday (31/1), the number of confirmed cases of corona virus infections in Indonesia reached 1,078,314, including an additional 12,001 new cases. A total of 873,221 have recovered, while 175,095 are still under medical treatment.

The death rate due to COVID-19 in the country reaches 29,998 people, or 109 people per one million.

So far Indonesia has tested 9,194,031 samples, or as many as 33,408 per one million people.

Worldwide 103,186,785 have tested positive for COVID-19, and 2,230,714 have died.

Reporting by Indonesia Window