New Zealand, Vietnam and Taiwan rank the top three in a Covid-19 Performance Index of almost 100 countries for their successful handling of the coronavirus pandemic, with Britain and America near the bottom of the pile.

The Lowy Institute said its index published on Thursday excludes China, where the first cases were identified in December 2019, due to lack of publicly available data.

Other countries in the top 10 include Thailand, Cyprus, Rwanda, Iceland, Australia, Latvia and Sri Lanka - countries with fewer reported cases and deaths both in aggregate and per capita terms...