Palace blames vaccine shortage for tanking COVID-19 resilience report

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. shares his remarks to President Rodrigo Roa Duterte during the IATF meeting. PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang on Wednesday said it is not surprising that the Philippines fell at the bottom of a COVID-19 resilience report, blaming instead the worldwide challenge in accessing COVID-19 vaccines that are crucial in fighting the pandemic.

The Philippines made the distinction of being ranked last among 53 countries in Bloomberg’s COVID Resilience Ranking report.

Indicators used in the report include vaccination coverage, severity of lockdowns and restrictions, progress on restarting travel and easing border curbs, case fatality rate, and the overall mortality throughout the pandemic.

But while the Philippines was at the bottom rung of the Bloomberg report, Roque said that other Southeast Asian neighbors were likewise dealing with the same difficulties.

“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,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a statement.

“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.’  The Philippines is a classic case in point, where inoculation is highly dependent on the availability and stability of vaccine supplies,” he added.

To address such problems, Roque said that the Philippines in “numerous occasions has advanced its position on the universal access to COVID-19 vaccines” because the “pandemic will not end unless the coronavirus is defeated everywhere through vaccination.”

“In addition, this resilience ranking is in line with the notion of total health, which we personally advocated, where the re-opening of more industries and businesses allowing more people to return to their livelihood must be balanced with improving the country’s healthcare system capacity,” said Roque.

Over 20.3 million individuals in the country have so far completed their COVID-19 vaccine doses.

The government aims to open COVID-19 vaccination to the general population, including minors, in October as it expects more supply of the vaccine.

As of Tuesday, the Philippines’ case fatality rate is at 1.51 percent after recording 37,686 deaths out of the 2.5 million confirmed COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began. The country also has 132,139 active COVID-19 cases.

EDV