4.2 million Filipinos got hungry during pandemic — SWS

FILIPINO families who got hungry nearly doubled to 4.2 million during a Luzon-wide lockdown that was imposed in mid-March to contain a coronavirus pandemic, according to a Social Weather Stations (SWS) poll.

SWS said 16.7% of about 100 million Filipinos got hungry in the past three months, nearly double the 8.8% posted in December.

This was also the highest since the 22% or about 4.8 million families who said in September 2014 that they got hungry.

SWS said 3.5 million families experienced moderate hunger, while 699,000 families experienced severe hunger. — Vann Marlo M. Villegas