Philippine President, Rodrigo Duterte, has announced that there would not be reopening of schools until a coronavirus vaccine is available.
While disclosing this on Monday 25, 2020, during a televised address, Duterte said, “Without a vaccine, sending children to school “spells disaster”
Though Children are due to return to school at the end of August but Duterte insisted that sending children to school would amount to exposing them disaster.
“I will not allow the opening of classes where students will be near each other.
“Unless I am sure that they are really safe, it’s useless to be talking about opening of classes,” he added.
“For me, vaccine first. If the vaccine is already there, then it’s okay,” he added. “If no one graduates, then so be it,” he stated.
There is currently no vaccine available and no known treatment to cure COVID-19, the highly infectious respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus.
Researchers across the world have been intensifying efforts to quickly develop a vaccine.
“The coronavirus has not disappeared despite social distancing and it will continue to spread until there is a vaccine,” infectious diseases expert Amesh Adalja of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security said.
“We will have a second and even third wave if there is no vaccine.
“We do know that coronavirus is, in general, accelerate their spread in the fall and winter as environmental conditions favour their transmission,” he added.
There have been 14,319 confirmed coronavirus cases in the Philippines as of Monday, including 873 deaths, according to the Department of Health.
