Malacaῆang and the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 said the government is resorting to measures to aid recovery from the pandemic, following the country’s low ranking in an international COVID-19 report.
“Hindi natin makakaila na malaki ang naging epekto ng pandemiya sa ating ekonomiya. Pero ang ating economic team naman ay kampante na tayo po ay unti-unti nang bumabangaon at tuluyang makakabangon,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said.
“Ulitin lang po natin, ang ating choice ngayon ay hindi between health and the economy. It is about total health,” Roque added.
Based on The Covid Resilience Ranking published by international agency Bloomberg, the Philippines placed second to the last among 53 countries in terms of COVID-19 pandemic response toward reopening.
READ: The Best And Worst Places to Be as The World Finally Reopens
“India, the Philippines and some Latin America countries rank lowest amid a perfect storm of variant-driven outbreaks, slow vaccination, and global isolation,” the report noted.
Among the bases for the ranking are vaccination, lockdown implementation, flight capacity, and other recovery measures.
The “best places to be in the COVID-19 era,” according to the report, are the United States, New Zealand, Switzerland, Israel, France, Spain, Australia, Mainland China, United Kingdom, and South Korea.
It, however, tagged as “worst places” Taiwan, Peru, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Colombia, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Philippines, and Argentina.
NTF deputy chief implementer Vince Dizon said the government will double its efforts to improve the situation that would lead to further reopening.
“Ang kailangan lang nating gawin, magtrabaho nang magtrabaho para tuloy-tuloy ang pagbabakuna natin para itong COVID maging thing of the past na siya,” he said.
This was supported by a team of Israeli experts who visited the country this month, who said that they were “very impressed by the high level of professionalism and knowledge of the right way to treat the vaccines such as Pfizer and other vaccines.” – Report from Mela Lesmoras/AG-rir
