Philippines back at the bottom of Bloomberg COVID-19 resilience ranking

The Philippines dropped back to the bottom of the Bloomberg COVID Resilience Ranking, again making the country the worst place to be during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the latest Bloomberg report, which was released Thursday, the Philippines was ranked last among 53 countries with a score of 48.3.

Last December 1, 2021, the country was at the end of the list with a resilience score of 43.1.

The Philippines “edged up” slightly from being the worst place to be during the COVID-19 pandemic, when it ranked 50th last December 23, 2021.

“Difficulties administering vaccines in remote areas continue to be a vulnerability as the country sees an Omicron surge worse than other Southeast Asian countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand,” the Bloomberg report said.

The report said developing countries, including the Philippines, were struggling to administer COVID-19 vaccines due to “logistical issues.”

“Poor health infrastructure, lack of trained staff, and difficulties accessing rural populations are slowing rollouts in poorer places,” the report said.

Economic growth

In response, Malacañang said Friday the country's latest economic growth was the best indicator of resilience.

Acting presidential spokesperson Karlo Nograles cited government data which showed that the fourth quarter 2021 growth rate stood at 7.7%. This is faster than the 6.9% posted in the third quarter. 

Full-year growth was at 5.6%, beating the government's forecast.

Nograles also said foreign analysts have projected the Philippine economy to grow above 7% in 2022. 

"Let the numbers speak for themselves. That is the clearest indication of the resilience of the Philippines amidst the COVID-19 pandemic," he said at a press briefing. 

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) topped the Bloomberg list with a resilience score of 78.9. It was followed by Saudi Arabia with 77.8, and Finland and Turkey both scored 70.1. Singapore grabbed the 5th spot with a score of 70.

The other nations at bottom of the list were Argentina with 57, followed by Russia with 55.9, Romania with 55.5, and Vietnam with 53.4.

The Philippines detected 618 more cases of the highly transmissible Omicron coronavirus variant, of which 497 were local cases and 121 were returning Overseas Filipinos.

According to the Department of Health (DOH), this brought the total confirmed Omicron cases in the country to 1,153.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Monday said the new daily COVID-19 cases in the National Capital Region (NCR) had peaked amid the decline in the number of infections reported over the past few days.

Duque said the country was coordinating with the World Health Organization (WHO) on the reported sub-lineage of the highly transmissible Omicron variant called the BA.2 or the Stealth Omicron.

Despite this, Duque emphasized that vaccines remained effective. — with a report from Joviland Rita/DVM/VBL, GMA News