Figures from the data research website Our World in Data show that at 4.23% as of June 8, the Philippines only places eighth among 10 countries in the region (excluding East Timor) if the percentage of vaccinated population is to be considered.
In its presentation of rankings, the government has highlighted the number of vaccine doses administered which, at around 6.9 million as of June 14, puts the country at the top 2 of the list, next to Indonesia.
“It’s just two ways of looking at the numbers,” Roque said in a media briefing. “One is absolute numbers, and we remain second.”
“There is absolutely no deception when you use absolute numbers, katotohanan lang po [it’s only the truth],” he added.
Roque also pointed out that Singapore, which has the biggest percentage of vaccinated residents at over 40%, only has a small population. Singapore has less than 6 million people, while the Philippines has around 110 million.
National Task Force Against COVID-19 deputy chief implementer Vince Dizon also said those who tag the government’s data presentation as misleading are only “trying to find fault where there is no fault.”
“There is a global supply problem, but what the government has shown is that when the supply comes, we use it to vaccinate as fast and as many of our countrymen as possible,” he added.
According to Dizon, the country is seeing an increased vaccination capacity and was able administer at least a million doses weekly over the past three weeks.
Official figures show that a total of 12.6 million vaccine doses have already arrived in the country. Of this number, 6.9 million doses have been administered to around 5.06 million people, including 1.87 million who have already received their second dose.
Meanwhile, the number of active COVID-19 cases in the country rose to 59,096 on Monday after the Department of Health confirmed 6,426 new infections. The death toll climbed to 22,845 with 57 more killed by the virus, while some 1.24 million have already recovered.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 14) — The government on Monday said there was nothing misleading in ranking the vaccination rollout of Southeast Asian nations in terms of total doses administered, instead of the percentage of inoculated citizens.
