THE National Government will roll out the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccination of children aged five to 11 on February 4, National Task Force (NTF) chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. said Monday, January 24.
Galvez said the Department of Health (DOH) will issue guidelines on the vaccination of the said age group within the week.
He said the vaccine doses for children as young as five will arrive by next week.
“Mister President, prepared na po tayo sa vaccination ng five to 11 years old. Last January ay nagkaroon po tayo ng live orientation ng pagbabakuna ang US Embassy ng mga bata sa ganitong edad. And then later, nagkaroon po ng mga follow-ups, similar orientations to other regions,” Galvez said in his presentation during President Rodrigo Duterte’s Talk to the People Address on Monday evening, January 24.
“Makaka-assure po tayo, Mister President, sa ating mga magulang na very safe ang ating gagamitin na bakuna dahil ito ay mas mababa ang formulation na angkop para sa mga bata. Kaya kung makikita po natin sa vials may color coding, ‘yung orange at saka po ‘yung purple. Iyong orange po para po sa five to 11 years old,” he added.
Galvez said they are expecting that the roll-out of vaccination for the said age group will be easier, as local government units already have experiences during the vaccination of adolescents or those aged 12 to 17, which started in November 2021.
He said hospital and non-hospital vaccination sites will be opened for the said population.
As of January 24, a total of 123,365,808 doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered in the country.
A total of 57,268,257 individuals have received full inoculation, 59,799,215 received the first dose and over six million persons got their booster doses. (SunStar Philippines)