THREAD: Is the PCOO really "amplifying facts" as it claims? We double-checked their claims. Here's what we found. (1/8) https://twitter.com/PhilstarNews/status/1387320008468959237

Citing the OCTA Research Group, PCOO News and Information Bureau head Virginia Arcilla-Agtay says the reproduction number in the PH has gone down to 0.85, without mentioning that it reached over 2 in March (2/8)

She also mentioned that the positivity rate in the country has dropped to 18% from 22%, but did not say that the WHO recommends a positivity rate of 5% or lower (3/8)

Citing Bloomberg and other “foreign posts,” Arcilla-Agtay claimed that the Philippines is the fourth among 10 SEA countries in terms of vaccine rollout.

The PH is actually the fifth among 11 SEA countries in terms of number of vaccine doses administered (4/8)

Further, the PH places ninth in terms of the percentage of the population who have received at least one vaccine dose (5/8)

Not mentioned in the statement, but Bloomberg also projects that at the current pace of the country’s vaccination drive, it would take nine years for the Philippines to inoculate 75% of the population against COVID-19. (6/8)

This time citing Johns Hopkins University, she claims that the PH has a low daily case count per million, when it is the second-highest in SEA based on this metric, following Malaysia. (7/8)

She also claimed that the Philippines is in the 28th spot in terms of testing according to Worldometers, when it is actually in the 140th spot. (8/8)

FULL STORY: State media told to show Philippines ‘faring better’ in COVID-19 response https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2021/04/28/2094434/state-media-told-show-philippines-faring-better-covid-19-response