ISLAMABAD: The Economist has this month ranked Pakistan third on a global ‘normalcy index” that measures countries’ progress in returning to pre-pandemic life, with Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday thanking his pandemic response teams and the central bank for taking effective measures against the virus.
Fifty countries are tracked on the list, which considers whether people are returning to work in offices, as well as travel numbers, attendance at sporting events and other factors to determine return to normalcy.
Last month, the Pakistani government lifted nearly all coronavirus restrictions, allowing businesses, offices, marketplaces, restaurants and entertainment venues to operate while adhering to social distancing rules. The country has also picked up the pace of its vaccination drive, with over 17 million doses administered so far in the South Asian nation of 220 million people, of which more than 125 million are above the age of 18 and therefore eligible for vaccination.
Pakistan ranked third on the Economist list, scoring 84.4 out of 100. Hong Kong and New Zealand ranked first and second respectively, and Malaysia, which is suffering from a deadly wave of infections caused by the more transmissible Delta variant, was at the bottom.
“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,” PM Khan said in a tweet, thanking Pakistan’s pandemic response body, the NCOC, and the Ehsaas cash program initiative for the poor.

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. pic.twitter.com/C8vQP4D9ku

— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) July 7, 2021

“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 table,” the Economist said.
The “normalcy index” comprises eight indicators, split into three domains.
“The first grouping is transport and travel: public transport in big cities; the amount of traffic congestion in those same cities; and the number of international and domestic flights,” the Economist said. “The second looks at recreation and entertainment: how much time is spent outside the home; cinema box-office revenues (a proxy measure for cinema attendance); and attendance at professional sports events. The third is retailing and work: footfall in shops; and occupancy of offices (measured by workplace footfall in big cities).”
The Economist said normalcy was also influenced by factors unrelated to the pandemic.
"In general, Asian countries have been less normal than you would expect," the magazine wrote. "Counterintuitively, behaviour has changed more in places with robust civil liberties than in otherwise similar but less free countries. This would make sense if people in such places are unusually likely to trust their leaders, or if they feel more invested in fellow citizens’ well-being. And richer countries, where lots of people can work from home, are more abnormal than poorer ones."