THE Philippines is still the worst place to be during the pandemic, according to Bloomberg’s latest COVID Resilience Ranking.
With a score of 40.5, the Philippines placed last among 53 countries for the second month in a row.
The indicators used to rank the countries include vaccination coverage, virus containment, the severity of lockdowns, quality of healthcare, progress toward restarting travel, and the overall mortality throughout the pandemic.
“While other Southeast Asian nations also continue to be ranked low among the 53 economies tracked, the Philippines fares among the worst on vaccine coverage, with just 26% of the population covered amid challenges in bringing shots to areas outside of the big cities,” Bloomberg said Wednesday, October 27.
It also said that the Philippines’ ongoing restrictions on domestic movement and international travel continued to drag down the country’s score.
“The capital Manila has allowed more businesses to open their doors again, including gyms and cinemas, but it’s still behind neighbors like Thailand and Indonesia which are back to embracing tourists,” Bloomberg added.
However, it noted that the decreasing new infection rates in the country indicated that the Philippines has “a better handle” of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The percentage of those testing positive for the virus has declined significantly from nearly one in three in September to about 12%, indicating the Philippines has a better handle on its outbreak than before and is catching cases,” said Bloomberg.
“That could pave the way for more reopening going forward,” it added.
Other Southeast Asian nations joined the Philippines at the bottom of the list: Indonesia (48th), Malaysia (50th), Thailand (51st), and Vietnam (52nd).
Meanwhile, Ireland dominated the ranking with a resilience score of 75.1. This was followed by Spain, United Arab Emirates, Denmark, and Finland.
The United States ranked 26th, while China placed 28th.
To date, there are a total of 2,772,491 COVID-19 cases in the Philippines, with 42,575 fatalities and 2,680,081 recoveries.
