The COVID-19 pandemic took the world by storm, giving rise to varying national health responses on a global scale. This global crisis hit many countries, with most of them largely unprepared and some more prepared to manage it than others.

However, national responses by countries to the pandemic present only a part of the whole picture. A deeper look into each country's federal response will reveal critical elements from the functional government units within the respective countries. For example, countries which provided an excellent response to the COVID-19 pandemic were able to achieve this courtesy of perfect coordination and organization within their city-states and municipalities in the country.

This is why Deep Knowledge Analytics, an analytical subsidiary of the Deep knowledge Group, released a COVID-19 City Ranking report in September 2021, which sought to rank the effectiveness of cities' pandemic response across vaccines, economy, governance, and safety.