Robredo camp to gov't: Use PH's low COVID resilience rank as guide to do better

The spokesperson of Vice President Leni Robredo on Sunday, October 31, said the administration should not be critical of the Bloomberg COVID Resilience Ranking of the best and worst places to be amid the pandemic.

The Philippines remained at the bottom in the latest global pandemic resilience ranking released by Bloomberg last week.

For the second time this year, the country ranked 53rd with a score of 40.5.

Gutierrez said that this is not about the ranking alone, but the number of Filipinos who are getting sick and losing their jobs because of the lockdowns.

“Wag nating masamain. Gamitin natin na kung baga, gabay, lalong incentive para lalo pa nating paghusayin (Let’s not take it badly. Let’s use it as a guide, an incentive for us to be better),” Gutierrez suggested.

“Kasi lumalabas kahit ano pa paliwanag mo, eh sa 53 countries, ni-rank ka 53. Obviously, mayroong hindi tamang nangyayari o may kulang na hindi nagagawa. So, kailangan nating tutukan pa rin (No matter your excuse, the point is out of 53 countries ranked, you are 53. Obviously, something’s wrong or lacking in what you’re doing. So, we need to focus),” he said.

READ: Bloomberg report tagging PH ‘worst to be’ in the pandemic ‘unfair’- DILG spox

The Bloomberg report noted the Philippines’ lagging vaccination and reopening despite the decreases in the number of COVID-19 cases. The conservative approach, which saw kids banned from malls and other public areas, is dependent on a fragile healthcare system that could be in the brink of collapse with another outbreak in case of a full reopening of the economy.

Only 26 percent of the population are fully vaccinated amid challenges to bring the vaccines to far-flung areas.

As of Oct. 28, 26,803,677 individuals have already been fully vaccinated while 31,015,126 others have received their first dose.

READ: Gov't aims to fully vaccinate 50 M Filipinos vs COVID-19 by year end — Galvez

Neighboring countries such as Indonesia and Vietnam were ranked 48th and 52nd, respectively, have already distributed their vaccines enough to cover one-third of their population. Indonesia has almost thrice the number of the Philippines’ population.

Indonesia and Vietnam, along with Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines were among the last six of the rankings.

On Saturday, Oct. 30, the Philippines logged 4,008 new cases as four laboratories were unable to submit data. The positivity rate is at 7.8 percent, nearing the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation of less than five percent.

The total COVID-19 cases in the country is 2,783,896 with 43,044 deaths.