ADVERTISEMENT

News

Palace 'not surprised' by Philippines' worst place ranking: Vaccine inequality to blame

By LLANESCA T. PANTI,GMA News

Malacañang on Wednesday pointed to the vaccine inequality between wealthy and developing countries for the Philippines' getting tagged as the worst place to be amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque made the remark in response to Bloomberg's COVID-19 Resilience Ranking Report among 53 countries.

It is based on the nations' quality of healthcare, vaccination coverage, severity of lockdowns and restrictions, progress on restarting travel and easing border curbs, among others. 

“We are not surprised that the Philippines, together with other Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam are at the bottom of the list while countries which topped the list are developed countries such as Ireland, Spain, Netherlands, Finland and Denmark,” Roque said.

“Vaccines are key towards defeating COVID -19. Unfortunately, as President Rodrigo Roa Duterte articulated in the United Nations, rich countries hoard life-saving vaccines, while poor nations wait for trickles. The Philippines is a classic case in point,“ he added.

ADVERTISEMENT

Roque said the resilience ranking was in line with the idea of total health where the re-opening of more industries and businesses allowing more people to return to their livelihood must be balanced with improving the country’s healthcare system capacity.

He said the Philippines had been pushing for equity in COVID-19 vaccine access.

“The pandemic will not end unless the coronavirus is defeated everywhere through vaccination,” Roque said.

At least 20.5 million Filipinos are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 so far, way behind fully vaccinating 99 million of Filipinos by May 9, 2022 to achieve herd immunity against COVID-19.

It is only on Tuesday, September 28, that President Rodrigo Duterte allowed the COVID-19 vaccination of minors aged 12 to 17 years old.

At least 37,000 people died of COVID-19 in the Philippines as of Wednesday, September 29. -NB, GMA News