The Philippines has had the longest lock down due to the coronavirus, and it also has the most cases of any ASEAN country.

As of today, according to the Johns Hopkins site, the Philippines has seen 169,213 cases, with 2,681 deaths. The number of new cases per day – after almost five months of varying degrees of lock down, has ranged from 3,000 to 6,000. (Today there were 4,836 new cases.) No one really knows how many cases there are there because after all these months, there is still no national testing plan in place. Hong Kong, with 7 million people, can test more people per day than the Philippines, with a population of 107 million. The Philippines has also relied heavily on a rapid test that even their own Department of Health says is inaccurate.

Much like the U.S., the country’s leaders failed to recognize the potential severity of the disease quickly enough. But unlike the U.S., widespread poverty and corruption have joined hands to further hamper efforts to contain the virus’s spread.

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