Yet any differences between India and Pakistan are more difficult to explain. Pakistan is currently recording hundreds of cases per day compared to India recording more than 80,000 daily.
Not everyone is convinced the differences are real.
Dr Bharat Pankhania, an expert on communicable disease control at the University of Exeter Medical School, said the countries were so similar he would be “very surprised” if Pakistan had fared better.
Many believe any differences can be explained by the relative lack of testing in Pakistan. India carries out four times as many tests per head.
The proportion of tests coming back positive in Pakistan continues to be low however, hovering around two per cent down from 20 per cent in June. While international health officials assisting Pakistan were at first sceptical of the country’s falling figures, they now believe they are genuine.
Nationwide occupancy in Covid wards was more than 30 per cent in June and far higher than that in some cities.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organisation, this week praised Pakistan’s use of workers from its polio campaign to spot and trace Covid-19 cases.
“This has suppressed the virus so that, as the country stabilises, the economy is also now picking up once again. Reinforcing the lesson that the choice is not between controlling the virus or saving the economy; the two go hand-in-hand,” he said.
Pakistan may also have had some demographic cards in its hand when compared with India. Though still the world’s sixth most populous nations, the country is far less densely inhabited than India.
Protect yourself and your family by learning more about Global Health Security