DESPITE criticisms against the Philippines vaccination program, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. praised the government’s vax rollout describing it as “sterling.”

However, Locsin stressed more supplies are needed to achieve population protection.

“I assure everyone here that the critics are liars; our rollout has been sterling — cleaner, more efficient, well tracked; we just need more vaccines,” Locsin tweeted Wednesday evening.

Nikkei Asia ranked the Philippines last out of 121 countries in its latest Covid-19 Recovery Index, which measures the countries and regions’ infection control, vaccination and social mobility.

Earlier, the Philippines has also ranked last among 53 countries in another study that measures economies’ resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a Bloomberg’s COVID Resilience Ranking report, the Philippines is at the bottom of the list with a score of 40.2, using the indicators: vaccination coverage, severity of lockdowns and restrictions, progress on restarting travel and easing border curbs, case fatality rate, and the overall mortality throughout the pandemic.

As of October 5, the Philippines has administered 47,778,751 vaccine doses, translating to 25.37 million as first shot and 22.4 million as second dose.

A total of 80,415,200 vaccine doses have arrived since February.

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Cristina Lee-Pisco