In over a year, a lot has happened in the Philippines due to the pandemic. Here are some facts and stats you should be aware of.
What initially started out as just a mysterious virus that was causing people in China to get sick turned out to be the worst global pandemic in decades. No country was spared by COVID-19 and the Philippines is no exception. With everything going on in the news like record cases and the roll out of vaccines, it may be hard to fully understand what has happened in the past year or so. Here are then some numbers that you should be aware of when it comes to the pandemic in the Philippines.
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450
That is how many days it has been since COVID-19 was first detected in the Philippines.
On this day in 2020, the country confirmed its very first case of COVID-19 from a 38-year-old Chinese national.
— The Philippine Star (@PhilippineStar) January 29, 2021
She arrived in the Philippines last January 21, 2020 from Wuhan, China via Hong Kong. pic.twitter.com/VNG8EixMs5
January 20, 2020, was when the first case of COVID-19 was reported in the country.
395
That is how many days it has been since the country was put on lockdown.
President Rodrigo Duterte will place Metro Manila on lockdown for at least 30 days to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus in the Philippines. He also raises Code Red Sublevel 2 Thursday, March 12
— Rappler (@rapplerdotcom) March 12, 2020
Full story: https://t.co/IPJOE0HMOw pic.twitter.com/bTf0vArXBt
Announced on March 12, 2020, the government mandated that the country was going into lockdown on March 15, 2020 to stop the spread of COVID-19. Ever since then, Metro Manila has been under some form of lockdown from EQC to GCQ.
27
That is the ranking of the Philippines in terms of countries with the most COVID-19 cases.
Ngayong 4 PM, Abril 14, 2021, ang Department of Health ay nakapagtala ng 8,122 na karagdagang kaso ng COVID-19. Samantala ay mayroon namang naitalang 501 na gumaling at 162 na pumanaw. pic.twitter.com/H9eZ2OYrM5
— Department of Health (@DOHgovph) April 14, 2021
As of April 14, 2021, the country ranks behind Belgium with over 927k cases and after Sweden with over 876k cases.
892,880
That is how many cases of COVID-19 the country has recorded until today, April 14, 2021.
This means that around 1 in every 120 Filipinos has tested positive for COVID-19. This amount puts the country just second to Indonesia in terms of the highest amount of cases in Southeast Asia.
15,447
That is how many people have died of COVID-19 as of April 14, 2021.
BREAKING: DOH reports 8,122 new cases, bringing the national total to 892,880, as of April 14, 2021.
— Manila Bulletin News (@manilabulletin) April 14, 2021
Total recoveries have reached 704,386 (+ 501 new) while death toll is now at 15,447 (+ 162 new). pic.twitter.com/0ducZajN4D
Around 1 in every 6975 Filipinos have died from COVID-19. This number puts the country second to Indonesia in terms of the highest death toll in Southeast Asia. There is a chance that the actual death toll is higher since some people who had COVD-19 may have died at their homes instead of the hospital and their death was not reported.
1
That is the percentage of the population of the Philippines that have received at least one vaccine shot.
LOOK: Makatizens aged 18-59 with comorbidities get their Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines at the Makati Coliseum. Vaccination program of Makati LGU continues. | @tinaarceodumlao pic.twitter.com/UFwbB7xMEu
— Inquirer (@inquirerdotnet) April 8, 2021
Ever since the first vaccines arrived in the country in late February, 1,093,651 people have received a vaccine shot as of April 13, 2021. In order to achieve herd immunity, 70 million Filipinos need to get vaccinated.
0.15
That is the percentage of the population of the Philippines who have been fully vaccinated.
TINGNAN: Pagbabakuna ng senior citizens ngayong araw, April 10, 2021. Apat na vaccination sites ang bukas ngayong araw para mabakunahan kontra COVID-19 ang halos isang libong senior citizens. pic.twitter.com/pZ21FdDL5W
— Pasig City Public Information Office (@PasigInfo) April 10, 2021
162,065 people have received their second dose as of April 13, 2021. This amounts to a little under 15% of people who have received a vaccine.
5
That is how many years it will take for the Philippines to achieve herd immunity through vaccines.
Based on the current rate the country is going, it is estimated that country will achieve herd immunity through vaccines in around 5 years.
2,500,000,000
That is how much readily available money there is in the national budget to buy vaccines.
BREAKING: President Rodrigo Duterte signs the ₱4.5-trillion national budget for 2021.
— CNN Philippines (@cnnphilippines) December 28, 2020
It’s touted as the recovery budget as it provides additional funding for COVID-19 response and sets a ₱72.5-billion allotment for vaccine purchases. https://t.co/sDo55hwVGt pic.twitter.com/yC0XEgmmKW
In the 2021 national budget, only 2.5 billion pesos in immediate cash were allocated for vaccine purchases. Another 70 billion pesos is to be used to buy vaccines, but those funds have been placed in an unprogrammed fund and can only be used until the government funds it through loans.
23%
That is how much the budget cut is for the Department of Health in 2021.
Over 40 billion pesos was cut from the budget of DOH from 2020 to 2021. Not all government entities saw budget cuts though as NTF-ELCAC, which has been known to red-tag activists and other critics of the government, saw a 2974% increase in budget to P19.5 billion while the DPWH had a 58% increase, or 255 billion pesos, in the budget for their infrastructure projects.
9.5%
That is how much the GDP of the Philippines dropped in 2020.
The last time the country saw a big drop like this was during the final years of the Marcos dictatorship. The nearly 10% drop made the Philippines the worst performing country economically in all of South East Asia in 2020.
4,500,000,000
That is how many people are unemployed in the country.
Unemployment has worsened in the Philippines with 4.2 million jobless in February 2021, slightly higher than the 4 million recorded unemployed in January, the Philippine Statistics Authority reports | @gleefjalea pic.twitter.com/nBHheIOZcY
— CNN Philippines (@cnnphilippines) March 30, 2021
From 2019 to 2020, the number of unemployed people in the country nearly doubled from 2.3 million to 4.5 million. Some experts believe that this number is an underestimation of the actual number of unemployed people, and it could be as high as double the official count.
38,000,000,000
That is how much unspent money is in the Bayanihan 2 funds.
President Rodrigo Duterte has extended the validity of appropriations under the country’s 2020 national budget and the Bayanihan to Recover As One Act or “Bayanihan 2.” | @KAguilarINQ https://t.co/kkK5UlXUs1
— Inquirer (@inquirerdotnet) January 6, 2021
When the Bayanihan 2 Bill was signed into law last year, it allocated over 165 billion pesos to boost the government’s pandemic response. The law says that all the money must be spent by December 2020, however over 25% of the fund has yet to be spent. Because of this, lawmakers have extended its validity until June 2021.
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