PH still the worst place to be during pandemic

For the third month in a row, the Philippines was the “worst place to be during the pandemic” out of 53 countries, according to Bloomberg’s COVID-19 Resilience Ranking for November.

With a resiliency score of 43.1, the country did not move from its 53rd spot in October when it had a resilience score of 40.5. In September, the Philippines was also in the same rank with a resilience score of 40.2.

“Southeast Asia continues to populate the bottom of the ranking with the Philippines remaining in last place, followed by Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia,” said the Nov. 30 report dubbed as “The Best and Worst Places to Be as Winter Meets Omicron.”

“The lowest two places on the ranking have given out less than 100 COVID shots per 100 people, a key barrier to improving their scores,” it added.

According to the report, the Philippines has given out only 73.2 doses per 100 people.

The COVID Resilience Ranking is a monthly snapshot of where the virus is being handled the most effectively with the least social and economic upheaval.

“The ranking captures how the world’s biggest 53 economies are responding to the same once-in-a-generation threat,” Bloomberg said.

The indicators used in the report included virus containment, quality of health care, vaccination coverage, overall mortality and progress toward restarting travel.

The United Arab Emirates was at the top of the list, making it the “best place” to live in during the pandemic with a resilience score at 73.2. It was followed by Chile (72.6), Finland (71.3), Ireland (71.2) and Spain (70.9).

Country-specific context

But for Malacañang, the positive results of the government’s measures against the pandemic carried more weight than the Philippines coming in dead last in the report.

In a statement on Wednesday, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, acting presidential spokesperson, said that while the Palace acknowledged the Bloomberg data “may be useful” in evaluating the country’s pandemic response, “we have to consider that the 53 countries in the report have different COVID-19 experiences and strategies.”

“There is little consideration for country-specific COVID-19 context, which in our view is imperative to objectively assess how countries managed pandemic response,” he said.

He pointed to the importance given by Bloomberg in reopening progress which involved lockdown severity, flight capacity and vaccinated travel routes.

The alert level system and granular lockdowns implemented by the government in November were some of the key interventions that enabled the country “to effectively manage COVID-19 risks while providing for an environment conducive to economic growth,” Nograles said.

Despite the Philippines’ poor ranking, “positive results” should be considered, such as active cases continuing to fall with only 425 reported as of Nov. 30—the lowest this year—and the latest positivity rate of 2.1 percent, also one of the lowest since testing data became available in April 2020, he added.

The ranking captures how the world’s biggest 53 economies are responding to the same once-in-a-generation threat

Economic growth

More importantly, Nograles said the country’s 1.71 percent case fatality rate remained one of the lowest, with Johns Hopkins University ranking the Philippines 84th in the world.

There was also no more overcrowding in hospitals while the country recently placed fifth highest in single-day vaccination rates worldwide, after 2.5 million doses were administered on Monday during the first day of the three-day nationwide inoculation campaign.

Nograles said that overall, these measures helped the Philippine economy grow 7.1 percent in the third quarter and, for this reason, the government’s economic team would keep in mind country-specific circumstances in coming out with policies.

“We reiterate that our goal is to strike a balance between the management of COVID-19 and the safe reopening of the economy—to protect lives and secure livelihoods. Having said this, our economic team will continue to put a greater emphasis on our country-specific conditions or context in order to craft policies that are more responsive to our people’s needs and the requisites of economic recovery,” he said.

Bloomberg