Malacañang blamed the “hoarding” of Covid-19 vaccines by developed nations after the Philippines fell to last place in Bloomberg’s Covid Resilience Ranking of the best and worst places to be amid the pandemic.
In a statement issued last Wednesday, Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said hoarding left many countries, including Philippines, scrambling for Covid-19 jabs.
“Vaccines are key towards defeating Covid-19. Unfortunately, as President Rodrigo Roa Duterte articulated in the United Nations, rich countries hoard life-saving vaccines, while poor nations wait for trickles,” Roque said.
“The Philippines is a classic case in point, where inoculation is highly dependent on the availability and stability of vaccine supplies,” he added.
The limited supply of Covid-19 vaccine prompted the government to initially limit its Covid-19 administration to key sectors.
Currently, only over 20 million of the country’s over 100 million population are fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
Roque issued the statement in response to Bloomberg’s latest COVID-19 Resilience Ranking report.
The monthly snapshot–which measures where the virus is being handled the most effectively with the least social and economic upheaval — ranks 53 major economies on 12 datapoints related to virus containment, the economy and opening up.
The Philippines’ drop to No. 53 reflects the challenges it’s facing from the onslaught of the delta variant, which has hit Southeast Asia particularly hard amid difficulties containing the more contagious strain and slow vaccination rollouts. The region, which recently had the worst outbreak in the world, populates the September Ranking’s lowest rungs, with Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam all in the bottom five.
The report measured the quality of healthcare, vaccination coverage, severity of lockdowns and restrictions, progress on restarting travel and easing border curbs, among others in assigning the ranking.
“We are not surprised that the Philippines, together with other Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam are at the bottom of the list while countries which topped the list are developed countries such as Ireland, Spain, Netherlands, Finland and Denmark,” Roque said.
Bloomberg observed countries, which have a high ranking in its report, are those whose populations have a high degree of trust in their government and have well established health infrastructure.
With Bloomberg report
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