A year after the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in the Philippines, the Department of Health (DOH) said a vaccine will help them in ''managing the situation'' where total cases have surpassed 500,000

"That is why the vaccine that we're going to launch, we are expecting that it can help us managing the situation alongside with the minimum public health standards. So our response is continuous," said Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said at Laging Handa public briefing on Saturday.

"The government is doing its best to acquire sufficient number of doses for our countrymen," she said.

"Although we know it is an immediate need, but we need to assure the safety and efficacious of the vaccine that we will provide for our people," she added.

Vergeire said DOH still seeing challenges on efforts to decrease COVID-19 cases in the country.

"First of which is the compliance of our people to the minimum health protocols, second,... we have to secure our borders. So we see that the spread of the virus on the borders that we are monitoring, the people are getting in and out of our country so that is one of the challenges that we see for now," she said.

"But in the whole, if we take a look, we can be able to manage this as long as we can secure the borders properly, and also we can be able to implement strictly the compliance to the minimum public health standards," she added. Robina Asido/DMS