Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque. FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — The government is now focused on ensuring the “total health” of the country amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Malacañang said Wednesday.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque issued the remark in response to a study ranking the Philippines as the second-lowest when it comes to resilience of countries to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Based on Bloomberg’s COVID Resilience Ranking, the Philippines ranked 52nd out of 53 countries with a score of only 45.3, next to Argentina with a score of 37, based on latest data as of June 27.
Roque said the country’s economic team is “confident” that the Philippines’ economy is slowly reviving.
“Ulitin lang po natin ang atin choice ngayon ay hindi between health and the economy. It is about total health,” he said in a press briefing.
(We reiterate that our choice is not between health and the economy but it is about total health.)
“Ang ating mga polisiya ngayon ay talagang ini-ensure na hindi lang mapapababa ang numero ng COVID kung hindi maiiwasan din po ang pagkagutom sa hanay ng ating mga kababayan,” he added.
(Our policy now is we are ensuring that we would not only decrease the number of COVID-19 cases but to also avoid poverty among Filipinos.)
For his part, National Task Force against COVID-19 deputy chief implementer Vince Dizon said the government will continue working hard to vaccinate as many Filipinos as possible to be able to combat COVID-19.
“Ang kailangan nating gawin ay magtrabaho tayo nang magtrabaho para tuluy tuloy ang pagbabakuna natin para itong COVID, talagang thing of the past na siya,” he said in the same briefing.
(What we need to do is work double time so that vaccinations will be continuous in order to make COVID-19 a thing of the past.)
“We just have to keep on working to vaccinate as many and as fast as we can and if we’re able to do that, hopefully we will have a better Christmas but we have to do that through hard work and through persistence,” he added.
As of Tuesday, the Philippines has already recorded a total of 1.4 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, composed of 50,037 active cases, 1.3 million recoveries, and 24,557 deaths.