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A Department of Health (DOH) official said the Philippines was experiencing a surge of COVID-19 cases when Nikkei conducted its Recovery Index where the Philippines finished 121th and last place.

"We tried to analyze the process made to analyze the metrics used for such surveys, and we see that they used a specific time period. And as I've said, all the countries in the world have their own period when their COVID-19 cases spike because of the Delta variant," Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a briefing on Thursday.

"The time period when they made the analysis was September and during this time in September is when the number of cases spiked in our country," she added.

Starting October, the Department of Health said the number of COVID-19 have gone down from five digits to four digits.

The index assess countries and regions on infection management, vaccine rollouts and social mobility. The higher the ranking, the closer is a chance to recovery, said Nikkei Asia.

Some Southeast Asian countries ascended the ladder. Indonesia went up to 54th to 92nd and Malaysia 102nd to 115th.

It can be recalled that recently the Philippines also got a low ranking in the Bloomberg’s COVID-19 resilience ranking.

Despite the low ranking, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque emphasized the previous statement made by World Health Organization Country Representative Rabindra Abeyasinghe about the COVID-19 response in the Philippines.

"Don’t be discouraged by the fact that you have a lot of cases being reported nationally. That is an acknowledgement of the fact that you have expanded your testing capacity," Roque said as he reiterated the statement of Abeyasinghe.

"The fact that you have one of the lowest proportions of fatal cases in the region also is an acknowledgement that you have expanded your clinical capacity, your hospital capacities. You have equipped your clinicians through proper training.", Roque quoted as Abeyasinghe as saying. Robina Asido/DMS