The Lancet: PH ranks 66th out of 91 countries in suppressing spread of Covid-19

METRO MANILA – International medical journal, The Lancet has listed the Philippines 66th out of 91 countries in terms of suppressing the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as of August.

Lancet notes that one of the key part to blame is the President Rodrigo Duterte’s “medical populism” on the issue.

The list was based on the new cases of Covid-19 per million population per day, averaged over the month of August for countries with sufficient data.

The Lancet COVID-19 Commission said a country was able to effectively suppress the spread of the virus if it only have five or fewes cases per million population a day providing they were able to conduct atleast 20 tests per new cases being recorded.

Taiwan, Thailand, Taiwan, Thailand, Cambodia, China, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Vietnam New Zealand, Uganda, Togo, Pakistan, Latvia, and Luxembourg were able to suppressed the Covid-19 spread last month.

The Philippines falls under the “moderate transmission.” as it is recording 37.5 new infections per million a day last August.

Countries that has “high transmission” are recording 50 to 100 new cases a day, while ‘very high transmission’ is when it tallies 100 or more infections per day.

The Lancet said that the Philippines was not able to fully implement non-pharmaceutical interventions, such as contact tracing, using of face mask, testing that proved very effective in other countries.

The Commission noted that the President’s style impedes the implementation of safety measures and causes “misinformation”.

The medical journal urged the governments to prioritize the advice from the public health community, which is working with international agencies that shares knowledge on what’s the best practice currently being implemented by other nations. The Philippines has around 295,000 COVID-19 cases with 231,373 recoveries and 5,091 deaths

Related Article: https://www.theasianaffairs.com/philippines/2020/09/15/ano-we-might-revert-back-to-ecq-reduced-physical-distancing-in-puvs-dangerous/