Can any country dodge the Covid bullet?

The government is yet again under fire for its handling of Covid-19, as cases rise across parts of the country. But what about the global context? Is it still possible to argue that Britain has done especially badly in handling the pandemic? Possibly, but it is becoming increasingly hard to do so, as many countries which appeared to handle the virus best the first time around are now suffering second waves much larger than what they experienced in the spring.

Germany, which this week announced a hard lockdown over Christmas, is a prime example. In the spring it was held up as an example of how the rest of Europe might have handled Covid-19. New recorded cases never rose over 7,000 a day and daily deaths peaked at 333 on 8 April. It is a very different story, however, the second time around. On Wednesday, Germany recorded 28,969 new cases and 952 deaths.