From a public health perspective, New Zealand is a COVID-19 success story. As of January 2021, New Zealand recorded only around 2,200 cases of and 25 deaths caused by COVID-19, which translates to a mortality rate of 0.51 deaths per 100,000 population – the lowest death rate...

In Croatia, the COVID-19 pandemic ended a period of robust economic growth and declining macroeconomic imbalances. The twin deficits in the fiscal balance and the current account had become surpluses after 2015, and by the beginning of 2020, the seasonally adjusted...

When COVID-19 infections began spreading first in China and then in Italy, the PiS government downplayed the threat of a pandemic. Once the pandemic hit Poland, however, the government responded very quickly. Already two days before the first confirmed case of a COVID-19...

Faced with the first recorded case of COVID-19 on 1 March 2020, the Czech government implemented a state of emergency with quite stringent lockdown measures almost immediately and quite effectively. Fear was inspired by news reports of the pandemic in Italy. As of mid-April,...

South Korea was comparably successful both in limiting the spread of the coronavirus pandemic and in limiting its social and economic consequences. As of 15 January 2021, the country had registered 71,820 confirmed Corona cases and 1,217 deaths, and the economy was expected...

The coronavirus crisis has been an unusual event, with no obvious blueprint for action in terms of health or economic policies. Information and knowledge regarding how the pandemic would unfold was and remains incomplete; moreover, lockdown-style restrictions are well...

Spain was one of the countries hardest hit by COVID-19 worldwide, both in terms of infections and deaths. The number of coronavirus cases recorded in Spain since the beginning of the pandemic officially exceeded two million at the beginning of January 2021 and the pandemic...

A key feature of Estonia’s performance during the COVID-19 crisis has been sectoral unevenness. This has mainly been caused by two factors: the varying maturity of institutional structures and paradigmatic policy change.

Portugal approached the pandemic in a largely unenviable position. It had a highly exposed healthcare system, with a very low number of intensive care beds (27th out of the 30 SGI countries in terms of “Intensive Care Beds”), a low number of ventilators (just over 1,000) and...

Finland is among the richest and happiest countries in the world. In spite of cuts in public spending over the past few decades, welfare state arrangements are an important cause of citizens’ satisfaction. Given this, Finland may have been in a better position than many...