Philippines still at bottom of pandemic resilience ranking for 3rd straight month

MANILA, Philippines — For the third consecutive month, the Philippines remained the worst place to be during the pandemic, according to a global COVID-19 resilience ranking.

With a score of 43.1, the Philippines placed last in Bloomberg’s Covid Resilience Ranking. The ranking captures how the world’s 53 biggest economies are responding to the health crisis.

The COVID-19 outbreak in the Philippines has eased, with the Department of Health reporting new infections fewer than 1,000 over the past few days.

The government is also intensifying its vaccination efforts by conducting a three-day national immunization activity. Another vaccination drive is scheduled in mid-December.

But the country’s inoculation rate—73.2 doses administered per 100 people—is a “key barrier to improving” its score, Bloomberg said.

As of November 29, over 35.89 million Filipinos have completed the recommended doses, while more than 46.27 million have received partial protection against COVID-19.

Other Southeast Asian nations also occupied the bottom rungs of the ranking: Malaysia (50th), Vietnam (51st) and Indonesia (52nd).

The United Arab Emirates topped the ranking, followed by Chile, Finland, Ireland and Spain.

The ranking is based on 12 indicators related to virus containment, quality of healthcare, immunization coverage, overall mortality and progress toward opening borders.

In the Philippines, over 2.83 million infections have been reported since the start of the pandemic. Of the total, only 0.6% are active cases.