Many countries are in worse than the Philippines when it comes to the COVID-19 case, based on data from Johns Hopkins University.
But how should the Philippines be compared especially since the status of the countries is different?
According to Johns Hopkins University, the Philippines ranks 26th in terms of the total number of COVID-19 cases.
Most countries with very high cases of the disease also have high populations such as America, India and Brazil.
The number of cases is also high in European countries with high testing such as Italy, Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom.
For former adviser of the National Task Force Against COVID-19 Dr. Tony Leachon, it would be better to compare the Philippines with countries that have responded well to the pandemic or with countries that are not far from the Philippine state.
“If we compare ourselves with the worst cases, may mga ulat na kino-compare natin ang sarili natin with India or Brazil, para maging ang feeling natin ay maging maganda ang pakiramdam natin,” said Leachon.
“I think ang dapat, compare with the best of the best and get their best practices para ma-adapt natin sa ating situation,” sabi ni Leachon. “Ang ka-match natin should be the areas in the Southeast Asian region.”
The Philippines’ state is said to be closest to Vietnam, with a population of nearly 100 million.
Philippines ranks 26th in total number of COVID-19 cases
But Vietnam is very low on the list when it comes to case volume: 167th on the Johns Hopkins record because they only have about 3,000 cases.
“Basically dahil sa pag-adhere [ng Vietnam] sa sicence,” said Leachon.
“Border control nila, isa sila sa pinakamatindi sa buong mundo… Isa sa best practice nila, ‘yong clear messaging, innovative, plus transparent and open communication,” he added.
If all countries in Southeast Asia are ranked, the Philippines is second to Malaysia with the most new confirmed cases per 1 million population.
Malaysia has over 60,000 testing outputs per day, with a population of over 32 million.
The testing output per day in the Philippines with a population of 110 million is around 50,000.
In Indonesia, with a total of 1.6 million cases, the number of new COVID-19 cases recorded per day has started to drop to 5,000.
The Philippines is one of the leading countries in Southeast Asia when it comes to vaccine rollout.
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