Philippines no longer last in Bloomberg's COVID-19 resiliency ranking

After three consecutive months, the Philippines "edged up" from being the worst place to be during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the latest Bloomberg report.

Based on Bloomberg's COVID-19 Resilience report for December, the Philippines now ranked 50th out of the 53 largest economies included in the study.

The Philippines' resiliency score reached 52, ahead of Indonesia, South Africa and Vietnam.

"The Philippines — ranked last the past three months — edges up three places as restrictions were eased, vaccination rates improved and the positive test rate fell, suggesting that undetected infection is finally coming under control," Bloomberg said.

Still, Southeast Asia dominates the bottom of the Ranking for the seventh month in a row, according to Bloomberg.

"Vietnam is last in December after its export-dependent economy was slammed by outbreaks causing factory shutdowns during the peak holiday production season," it added.

The Bloomberg COVID-19 Resiliency report is based on COVID-19 vaccine coverage, lockdown severity, number of COVID-19 cases, number of COVID-19 deaths, community mobility, gross domestic product forecast, universal healthcare coverage and human development index.

At least 45 million Filipinos are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 so far, and the government is targeting to fully vaccinate 54 million by year-end.

The government's COVID-19 vaccination program started last March, but the vaccination for those aged 12 to 17 years old only started in mid-November when the country already has enough vaccine supply.

Those aged 5 to 11 years old, on the other hand, have yet to be covered by the vaccination program since the Food and Drug Administration has just approved emergency use authorization for Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine for the age group recently.

The entire country is under Alert Level 2 for the entire December.

Under Alert Level 2 — the second lowest in the new alert level system — certain establishments and activities are allowed at 50% capacity indoors for fully vaccinated adults (and minors, even if unvaccinated) and 70% capacity outdoors. —KBK, GMA News