Uzbekistan ranked 82nd in the pandemics preparedness index released by the U.S.-based the Nuclear Threat Initiative and the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, with research by Economist Impact, measured the capacities of 195 countries to prepare for epidemics and pandemics.
Kazakhstan is placed 55th, Kyrgyzstan - 68th, Turkmenistan - 119th, Tajikistan - 140th.
Despite important steps taken by countries to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, all countries—across all income levels—remain dangerously unprepared to meet future epidemic and pandemic threats, according to the new 2021 Global Health Security Index.
The data demonstrate that all countries have insufficient sustained health capacities, leaving the world acutely vulnerable to future health emergencies, including those potentially more devastating than COVID-19. The average overall 2021 GHS Index score is 38.9 out of a possible score of 100. No country scored in the top tier of rankings and no country scored above 75.9.
The GHS Index is designed to inform leaders of the foundational elements necessary to prepare their countries for future outbreaks and where they should prioritize planning and durable funding. It is not a direct predictor of performance in the face of a health emergency; as COVID-19 has demonstrated—contextual social, political, and cultural phenomena also impact how well a country responds to a biological event.
The conclusions of the 2021 GHS Index are the result of a revised framework and updated data collection conducted between August 2020 and June 2021 that allowed researchers to glean hard truths about preparedness for future threats while assessing health security capacities during the ongoing pandemic. The index assessed countries across six categories, 37 indicators, and 171 questions using publicly available information. The index benchmarks health security in the context of other factors critical to fighting outbreaks, such as political and security risks, the broader strength of the health system, and country adherence to global norms.
