Hong Kong has been found to be among the trailblazers to normalcy after it scored 96 percent in The Economist’s normalcy index that measured how close current activities are to pre-pandemic levels.
The normalcy index tracked eight key factors, namely: sports attendance, time at home, traffic congestion, retail footfall, office occupancy, flights, film box office, and public transport.
It covered 50 countries that represented 75 percent of the global population and 90 percent of the global gross domestic product.
Following Hong Kong is New Zealand with a score of 88 percent, then Pakistan, Nigeria, and Ukraine, which each had 84 percent.
Other notable nations amongst the top 10 include Romania (82 percent), Denmark (81 percent), Egypt (81 percent), Israel (80 percent), and Mexico (80percent).
“The world is slowly coming back to pre-pandemic levels,” the report read, adding that the overall global normalcy index slumped from a value of 80 in March 2020 to just 35 by mid-April.
The index bounced back rapidly, hitting 50 in July 2020. After rising again in September, it has, until recently, waxed and waned around an average level of about 60.
In the past two weeks leading up to the 1st of July 2021, the index has risen to a level of 66.
Some countries, however, are still far from returning to their pre-pandemic normal, such as Germany and Britain which ranked 33rd and 36th, respectively.
