From politically connected individuals raiding the state coffers for PPE kick-backs, to ministers removing cooked chickens from the shelves, lockdown in South Africa has been a perplexing ordeal. Many government measures have saved lives – but others have left citizens scratching their heads.

Three alcohol bans, five months of tobacco prohibition, a government-regulated list of what clothes you’re can buy during Level 4 – and even an attempt to ‘have everyone in bed’ by 21:00 on New Year’s Eve. Lockdown has been tough on millions of South Africans: So it may come as no surprise to see where our nation appears on the ‘COVID resilience’ scale.

The Bloomberg-created project assesses 11 variables across two different table contents: COVID Status, and Quality of Life. South Africa doesn’t do too badly in terms of containing the virus – but issues such as ‘lockdown severity’ and ‘GDP growth forecasts’ hold South Africa back significantly. Our current ‘access to vaccines’ is also a debilitating factor.

SA’s case and mortality rates remain relatively low, however – and that’s arguably the only thing keeping us off the bottom of this 53-country list. Mexico takes the wooden spoon here, largely thanks to its average number of fatalities and ‘high test positivity’ results. Registering 30.8 on the 100-point scale, the Hispanic Territory is comfortably worse-off than South Africa.

Every cloud, and all that. You can see the visuals of that table here:

And, if you’re wondering where the best places to be during the pandemic are, we’ve got the results here. You get no prizes for guessing who comes top, by the way.