Jordan ranks above average on Global Health Security index

AMMAN — Jordan scored 80th out of 195 countries on the Global Health Security (GHS) Index, the first comprehensive assessment of global health security capabilities, according to the index’s report.

The average overall GHS Index score is 40.2 out of a possible 100, with Jordan scoring 42.1 on the scale. While high-income countries report an average score of 51.9, the index shows that collectively, “international preparedness for epidemics and pandemics remains very weak”.

The GHS Index assesses countries’ health security and capabilities across six categories, 34 indicators, and 85 sub-indicators. The findings are drawn from open-source information, which provides a response to 140 questions across the categories.

Jordan scored slightly below or above average in each of the six categories, except for the rapid response scale, in which it scored at 47.8, well above the worldwide average of 38.4.

With a global average of 39.4 for risk communication, Jordan was given a full score at 100, one of its top scores on the index’s sub-categories.

However, the Kingdom scored 0 on several sub-categories, including biosecurity, biosafety and communications with healthcare workers during public health emergencies, indicating that serious measures need to be taken in those regards.

The index found a generally weak global capacity for “catastrophic global biological risks”.

At least 75 per cent of countries receive low scores on globally catastrophic biological risk-related indicators, and Jordan was listed within that three-quarter majority.

The United States ranked first on the GHS Index as the most prepared, with a score of 83.5, while Equatorial Guinea ranked last, with a score of 16.2.