Philippines no longer at bottom of Nikkei Asia’s COVID-19 recovery ranking

The Philippines is no longer the cellar-dweller in the latest COVID-19 recovery ranking by Tokyo-based news magazine Nikkei Asia.

In its October 31 report released on Friday, the Philippines climbed 18 spots to share 103rd place with Afghanistan. In September, the Philippines ranked last among 121 nations evaluated based on infection management, vaccine rollout, and social mobility.

The country's previous rankings were 108th in July and 106th in August.

The Philippines' score of 41.5 includes a dismal 1.5 points for “flight activity,” and a score of eight for “new doses per capita,” another eight points for “confirmed cases versus peak case count,” and three points for “policy stringency” on mobility.

The index measures the following factors, with each subcategory worth 10 points for a total of 90:

Infection management

• Confirmed cases of COVID-19 versus peak case count
• Confirmed cases per capita
• Tests per case

Vaccination

• Total vaccine doses per capita
• New vaccine doses per capita
• Share of vaccinated population

Mobility

• Community mobility
• Policy stringency
• Flight activity

The United Arab Emirates topped the October edition with a score of 74, followed by Malta (73.0), Chile (70.5), Saudi Arabia (70.0), Bahrain (70.0), Japan (69.0), and Colombia (69.0).

Laos occupied the bottom spot (121st).

Nikkei Asia sourced its figures from Our World in Data; Google COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports; Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker by Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford; and Cirium, an aviation data and analytics company. — VBL, GMA News