Philippines ranks last in Bloomberg COVID resilience report

The Philippines ranked last out of 53 surveyed countries in Bloomberg's COVID-19 resilience report, falling from its previous 52nd position.

The country scored poorly across all four metrics for reopening: vaccine coverage, lockdown stringency, flight capacity, and COVID-19 containment.

Bloomberg noted the low testing rate with a 27% positive result, suggesting a high number of undetected COVID-19 infections.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque attributed the country's low ranking partly to vaccine inequity among nations and the limited scope of the survey, which only included 53 out of 194 countries.

Roque also conceded that quarantine restrictions and lockdowns implemented to curb transmission amid the Delta variant significantly impacted the country's economic resiliency.

The Bloomberg report, which surveyed the 53 biggest economies, ranked countries based on virus containment, healthcare quality, vaccination coverage, overall mortality, and progress toward restarting travel and easing border curbs.