Sri Lanka was ranked the best performer in the South Asia region in handling the COVID-19 crisis, according to a report released by an Australia-based Lowy Institute. The institute created a COVID-19 Performance Index based on the countries’ handling of the crisis.

In the overall ranking, Sri Lanka was ranked 10th. India remained the worst performer in the region. The country ranked 86 out of 98 total countries that were considered for the Index. 

In the region, Sri Lanka is followed by the Maldives, ranked 25, Pakistan at 69, Nepal at 70, and Bangladesh at 84. The list doesn’t include Bhutan.

The index considered six main indicators to gauge the performance of countries. Indicators are confirmed cases, confirmed deaths, confirmed cases per million people, confirmed deaths per million people, confirmed cases as a proportion of deaths, and tests per thousand people.

“Fewer reported cases and deaths, both aggregate and per capita terms, points towards a better response to the pandemic,” it says. China wasn’t included in the index due to the lack of publicly available data on the number of cases.  

The smaller countries, with a lesser than 10 million population, have consistently outperformed their larger counterparts in the handling of the crisis, indicated the report.

The performance of democratic nations was slightly better than those with authoritarian systems.