Barring any further worsening of the Covid-19 contagion, Philippines is headed to the homestretch of the pandemic. Or shall we say cruising to the new normal of a pandemic life.
Tough ride it was which cane to a point where we once are the lowest performing country in Covid response. Things have changed radically and in the Asean region, we are ahead in easing regulations due to lowering of cases.
Let’s revisit the journey.
At some point, Bloomberg reported that “the Philippines faced a perfect storm in that it’s grappling with the then more ferocious delta variant (before Omicron) at the same time as it works with an inadequate testing regime and sees disruptions to its economy and people’s livelihoods as the pandemic continues to rage.”
The Philippines fell to last place in Bloomberg’s Covid Resilience Ranking of the best and worst places to be amid the pandemic, capping a steady decline over the course of 2021.
The Bloomberg monthly snapshot — which measures where the virus is being handled the most effectively with the least social and economic upheaval — ranks 53 major economies on 12 datapoints related to virus containment, the economy and opening up.
The Covid landscape has changed and the Philippines is pushing back to near pre-pandemic life.
A major factor is how the government dealt with the pandemic despite the highly political criticisms. The resolve to push the testings and vaccinations was critical in the fight against Covid. Likewise, the country’s healthcare workers kept us in the fight from start to current times. Many fell by the wayside and we owe a lot to these gallant men and women.
The latest Asean figures show the Philippines posting a current GDP Growth Rate projection of 6.2 from pre-pandemic 6.5. Only Vietnam, which has a 6.5 current growth rate projection equalling its pre-pandemic projection of 6.5, is performing better.
We cannot complain to be honest. We are doing fine.
