Duque: Inequitable COVID-19 vaccine distribution dragged down Philippines’ resilience ranking

The inequitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines across the globe is to blame for the Philippines’ poor performance in the latest COVID Resilience Ranking, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said Wednesday.

Interviewed on GTV’s Balitanghali, Duque said the country’s COVID-19 vaccine coverage is low because rich nations have hoarded supplies.

“Tayong mga mahihirap o developing countries ay paunti-unti lang ang dumarating at ang isang malaking problema, ‘yung global failure to share vaccines equitably para talagang mapabilis ang ating pag-angat mula sa pandemyang ito,” he said.

(Vaccines only arrive in trickles in poor or developing countries like ours. One big problem is the global failure to share vaccines equitably to accelerate our recovery from this pandemic.)

The Philippines was ranked second lowest among 53 economies by vaccine coverage, lockdown severity, flight capacity, vaccinated travel routes, one-month cases per 100,000, one-month fatality rate, total deaths per million, positivity rate, mobility, 2021 GDP growth forecast, universal healthcare coverage, and human development index. 

“Hindi maganda itong kanilang ranking na ito dahil hindi naman natin kontrolado ‘yung vaccine supply (This ranking isn’t good because we don’t have control over the vaccine supply),” Duque said.

The health chief added that the lockdown severity in the Philippines is high also because of its low vaccine coverage.

The Philippines has only vaccinated less than 10% or 7.5 million of its 110-million population as of June 27. Only around 2% have been fully inoculated. 

Much of the country also remains under strict lockdown restrictions more than a year into the pandemic. 

The Philippines has logged over 1.4 million COVID-19 cases with more than 1.3 million recoveries and 24,557 deaths as of Tuesday afternoon. — Julia Mari Ornedo/RSJ, GMA News