A medical worker prepares to administer a vaccination against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as Israel continues its national vaccination drive, during a third national COVID lockdown, in Ashdod, Israel January 4, 2021. REUTERS/Amir Cohen.

Israel has risen towards the top of Bloomberg’s “Covid Resilience Ranking,” an ongoing measure of how world economies are dealing with the pandemic and measures to contain it, thanks to the country’s massive vaccination campaign.

The Jewish state now places fifth on the Bloomberg ranking, rising nine places and becoming the first new country to crack the top tier since the project began in November — and the only country outside of the Asia-Pacific region in the top nine.

The ranking uses ten metrics to gauge pandemic “resiliency” and judge which countries have fought the coronavirus most effectively and with the least “social and economic” disruption.

Israel’s world-leading vaccination drive was the primary metric behind the country’s rise, with 54.1% of its population “covered” by vaccines, according to the Bloomberg figure used. The next highest shares of the population covered among countries examined were the United Arab Emirates, Chile, the United Kingdom and the United States, all of which are also rising up the list as their vaccine drives pick up steam.

Out of 53 countries evaluated, Israel was 15th in terms of its positive test rate, at 2%, and 17th in terms COVID-19 deaths as a share of cases over the last month, at 0.7%. The Jewish state also scored 15th-best on the “lockdown severity” metric, which measures the disruption to people’s everyday lives from policies to contain the virus.

The countries scoring ahead of Israel overall were New Zealand, Singapore, Australia and Taiwan, from 1st to 4th.

On Thursday, Israeli Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said that over half of Israelis were now vaccinated.

“We have crossed the 50% threshold of all Israeli citizens who are vaccinated in the second dose. Thanks to you [the public], the State of Israel is defeating the coronavirus. All that remains is to follow [Health Ministry] directives so that it doesn’t return,” said Edelstein.

COVID-19 morbidity in Israel on Wednesday stood at 1.1%, down from a high of more than 10%, while the virus’s reproduction rate had fallen to 0.59. The downward trend has continued despite Israel’s gradual exit from its third nationwide lockdown, which began on Dec. 27.

As of Thursday, 4,655,955 Israelis had received both doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine, according to Health Ministry data.