Which EU Countries Handled the Coronavirus Pandemic Best
It is unclear when the pandemic will be something of the past days, with 97,477,830 COVID-19 cases in the world and more than 2 million deaths, but expectations are higher than ever, that better days are on their way, after the vaccine roll-out.
In most world countries the situation has deteriorated from November and on, including in Europe. However, there are some particular countries, that have managed to keep the infection levels lower than all, or at least prevent the curve from going up.
In the European Union and the Schengen Area, the situation was among the worst in the world in mid-March. Yet, almost a year after the Coronavirus was announced a pandemic, some of them can be listed among the world countries that managed the pandemic best.
Finland
- Population: 5,545,543
- Total cases: 41,565
- Deaths: 632
- Total tests: 2,690,257
- Active cases: 9,933
- Cases per 1 million citizens: 7,495
- Deaths per 1 million citizens: 114
- Tests per 1 million citizens: 485,121
With less than one per cent of its population having been infected with COVID-19, and only 1.5 per cent of those infected having passed away, Finland is without any doubts the country that handled the Coronavirus best in the European continent, and one of those who managed the situation best in the world.
On January 29, 2020, a 32-year-old Chinese woman from Wuhan sought medical attention in Ivalo and tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, thus becoming the first COVID-19 case detected in Finland.
By March 13, the number of cases increased to 156, and on March 16, the Finnish Government, together with the President of Finland, declared a state of emergency due to COVID-19.
By that time, many other EU countries had similar levels of infections. However, while the spread of the virus spiked up there, including in neighbouring Sweden, Finland kept the number of infections low throughout the whole year.
According to the director of the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Mika Salminen, one of the main reasons why the Finnish authorities have managed to maintain the number of infections low, is its swift reaction to introduce measures to prevent the spread.
“Finland moved relatively quickly and comprehensively to introduce curbs on public life. It did so around two weeks earlier than other Scandinavian countries like Norway and Denmark, not to mention Sweden,” Salminen told German public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk Kultur back in November 2020.
Another reason for the low number of infections even after almost one year since the first infection was detected, is the trust Finnish citizens have in their Government, which pushes them to obey the restrictions, as well as the high number of tests performed by the authorities.
Finland’s current COVID-19 entry restrictions will remain in force until February 9, and can be extended beyond this date in the meantime.
Norway
- Population: 5,444,671
- Total cases: 60,259
- Deaths: 544
- Total tests: 3,242,808
- Active cases: 9,880
- Cases per 1 million citizens: 11,067
- Deaths per 1 million citizens: 100
- Tests per 1 million citizens: 595,568
Immediately after Finland, listed as one of the two countries that handled the Coronavirus pandemic best in Europe, and among the best in the world as well, is listed Norway – a non-EU Schengen member.
Learning from the mistakes of its neighbour Sweden, which strongly believed in ‘herd immunity’ until it was too late, Norway took the situation too soon in its hands and imposed strict restrictions throughout its whole territory.
On February 26, Norway confirmed the first case of COVID-19. By March 10, when the Government announced a national lockdown, the number of confirmed cases in Norway had spiked to 400.
According to a paper written by Tom Christensen and Per Lægreid, the Norwegian crisis management in response to the corona pandemic so is an example of rather effective decisionâ€making, handling, as well as making sense of the situation.
“After three weeks of draconian measures, Norway became the first European country to claim that the situation was under control, as the number of hospitalized COVIDâ€19 patients decreased and the number of deaths remained low. This highâ€performing Norwegian handling of the coronavirus pandemic must be understood in the context of competent politicians, a highâ€trust society with a reliable and professional bureaucracy, a strong state, a good economic situation, a big welfare state, and low population density,” the authors state.
While the country closely eased measures week after week, it kept its border sealed off more than all other European countries, Finland aside, keeping the virus at bay. All these measures helped keep the number of infections and deaths very low, compared to other EU countries.
The country did not remain behind in vaccine rollout either, as, by January 18, 48,680 were already people vaccinated, most of them elderly peoples in nursing homes.
Germany
- Population: 83,932,450
- Total cases: 2,108,895
- Deaths: 51,151
- Total tests: 37,449,922
- Active cases: 277,544
- Cases per 1 million citizens: 25,126
- Deaths per 1 million citizens: 609
- Tests per 1 million citizens: 446,183
With over two million cases, about 50 thousand deaths, one would rather place Germany in the list of countries that failed at managing the pandemic.
However, Germany has, in fact, been an example to other world countries how a bad situation can be turned around.
The country confirmed its first case near Munich, Bavaria, on January 27, 2020. Soon after, on March 15 borders to Austria, Denmark, France, Luxembourg and Switzerland were closed. Later on March 22, curfews were imposed in six German states, and at the same time other states prohibited physical contact with more than one person from outside one’s household.
The curve soon flattened though the country suffered later in November from the second wave of the pandemic.
According to Lothar Wieler and Ute Rexroth from the Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s strong health care system and early progress on detection completed its effective containment strategy.
“Ensuring the increase of human resources among understaffed local public health facilities was another key component to enable more efficient contact tracing, but these resources may not be sustainable,” the experts point out.
They also note that the German Government has been focusing on three factors—infection rate, disease severity, and capacity of the health system—to measure the quality of its response.
Yet Germany has failed to win the trust of its people, like Finland and Norway have, as in the middle of August 2020, thousands of people in the German capital Berlin took part in a protest against the country’s Coronavirus restrictions.
At the time, the demonstrators opposed the measures imposed by the Government, including the wearing of facemasks, which they claimed violated their rights and freedoms.
