THE coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic is set to trigger the deepest global recession since World War 2 and could push up to 100 million to the point of extreme poverty. Recent estimates suggest up to 6,000 children could die every day from preventable causes due to the impact the virus is having on delivery of immunization and other basic services.
The wider impact is also evident here in the Philippines. In addition to the tragic loss of more than 1,600 lives, sources of income have plummeted and livelihoods lost. As always, it is the poor and those groups already suffering from violence, stigma, discrimination and inequality who have borne the brunt of this new crisis. Previously healthy economic growth has been reversed, with the Asian Development Bank forecasting an unprecedented contraction of 3.8 percent this year. And such projections may yet worsen.
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