NOVEMBER REPORT

Philippines still at bottom of Bloomberg's COVID-19 resilience ranking

Despite the dramatic decrease in the number of cases and an intensified vaccination drive, the Philippines remains as the worst place to be during the  COVID-19 pandemic, according to the latest Bloomberg report released Tuesday.

Based on Bloomberg's COVID Resilience Ranking for November, the Philippines is again at the bottom of a list of 53 countries, having a resilience score of 43.1.

This means the Philippines did not move from its 53rd spot in Bloomberg's COVID Resilience Ranking in October when it had a resilience score of 40.5. In June, the country placed 52nd and dropped to 53rd in September, with a resilience score of 40.2.

"Southeast Asia continues to populate the bottom of the Ranking, with the Philippines remaining in last place, followed by Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia," Bloomberg said.

"The lowest two places on the Ranking have given out less than 100 Covid shots per 100 people, a key barrier to improving their scores," it added.

According to report, the Philippines has only given out 73.2 doses per 100 people.

The report tagged the United Arab Emirates as the "best place" to live in during the pandemic with a resilience score at 73.2, followed by Chile (72.6), Finland (71.3), Ireland (71.2), and Spain (70.9).

"After dominating the top rungs of Bloomberg's Covid Resilience Ranking for months, Europe has largely been dethroned with the United Arab Emirates — one of the most-consistent performers since the Ranking’s inception a year ago — becoming our new No. 1," Bloomberg said.

Among the "notable movers" in November were Iraq, India, Bangladesh, Argentina, Turkey, and Taiwan.

The indicators used in the report included vaccination coverage, virus containment, severity of lockdowns, quality of healthcare, progress toward restarting travel, and the overall mortality throughout the pandemic.

The report was released as the Philippines was in the middle of its massive three-day national vaccination program aimed inoculating some 9 million Filipinos against COVID-19.

Palace reacts

Reacting to the report, acting presidential spokesperson Karlos Nograles said the Philippines' worst placement is due to lack of country-specific gauge and heavy importance on reopening progress. 

"We acknowledge that the data provided by Bloomberg in its COVID-19 Resilience Ranking may be useful in evaluating our pandemic response. [But] we have to consider that the 53 countries in the report have different COVID-19 experiences and strategies. There is little consideration for country-specific COVID-19 context, which in our view is imperative to objectively assess how countries managed pandemic response," Nograles said.

"A case in point is the importance given by Bloomberg in reopening progress, which involves lockdown severity, flight capacity, and vaccinated travel routes," he added.

Nograles also cited that the country's Alert Level System policy has led to decreasing number of active COVID-19 cases with only 425 new COVID-19 cases recorded last November 30 which is the lowest reported in 2021, on top of the positivity rate which is at 2.1% which is one of the lowest since testing data became available in April 2020 and well within the standard 5% set by the World Health Organization.

Further, he argued that the country's 1.71% case fatality rate remains one of the lowest, with the Philippines ranked 84th in the world by the Johns Hopkins University, and that there is no overcrowding in the country's hospitals with utilization rate registering all below 30% as of November 30, 2021.

The DOH had described Bloomberg's October report, where the Philippines also placed last, as unfair.  —KBK/RSJ, GMA News