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| A teenage boy receives a BioNtech-Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine during the inoculation of the population aged 12 to 17 at a stadium in San Juan City, suburban Manila on November 3, 2021. (Photo by Ted Aljibe/ AFP) |
[Asia News = Reporter Reakkana] MANILA: The government is now changing tune on the global COVID-19 rankings by Tokyo-based news magazine Nikkei after the Philippines jumped 46 spots to 57th place on the list. Government officials had largely discredited the Nikkei COVID-19 Recovery Index when the Philippines was at the bottom of the listing and refused to acknowledge potential missteps in their handling of the pandemic, PhilStar reported.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire had said that the reason why the Philippines tanked in the list was supposedly due to the rankings only considering the time when the country was just experiencing a surge in cases while infections in other countries have peaked. But with the Philippines leaping in the rankings, they are now welcoming its results without much question. “This is good news that our ranking improved by 46 notches,” Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said in Filipino over state-run People’s Television.
For acting presidential spokesperson Karlo Nograles, the Philippines’ improvement in the Nikkei listing is a “clear indication that we have successfully contained the highly transmissible Delta variant.” "Our numbers look good, so this means our intervention and policies are working," he said.
