Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said Monday that the Philippines battle against the pandemic coronavirus disease may drag on for months if there are no proper interventions implemented, she said by citing the studies of experts.

During a virtual press briefing, Vergeire said, “Ang ating mga estimation galing po ‘yan sa ating mga scientist, sa mga mathematician. Nagkaroon po tayo ng tatlong modelling estimates na ginawa kung saan ang timeline ranged from hanggang third quarter of the year and maybe worst case scenario base sa kanilang pag-aaral ay next year po ng January. But these are all estimations.”

“Ito’y mangyayari kung wala tayong gagawing intervention.”

According to Vergeire, the absence of a vaccine against COVID-19 makes the Philippines use non-pharmaceutical interventions such as social distancing and frequent hand-washing to prevent the transmission of COVID-19.

She added that it could take about six to 18 months before a vaccine against the new strain of coronavirus can be developed and distributed to the public.

Based on the DOH’s online tracker, there are a total of 33,814 persons that have already undergo COVID-19 tests nationwide.

The Department of Health will obtain the test kits that are good for the next three months.

Earlier the DOH projected that they will be only able to conduct 3,000 COVID-19 tests per day starting April 14. The test capacity is expected to reach 8,000 to 10,000 daily by the end of the month.

The Philippines has recorded a total of 4,648 cases COVID-19, with 297 deaths and 197 recoveries as of Sunday, April 12, 2020.

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