11,600 Davao children 5-11 years old vaxxed in 1st week

A TOTAL of 11,664 children aged five to 11 in Davao Region were vaccinated against Covid-19 during the pilot week implementation.

The data, as of February 20, 2022, was based on the Vaccination Operations Reporting System (VORS) of the Department of Health (DOH)-Davao presented by Dr. Gerna Manatad, assistant regional director of DOH-Davao.

Of the 11,664 children, 419 children with comorbidities belong to the A3 pediatric priority group, while 11,245 belong to the rest of the pediatric population.

Davao del Norte had the highest number of vaccines administered with 4,184, followed by Davao Oriental with 2,228, and Davao City with 2,008.

Davao de Oro administered 1,609 vaccines, Davao del Sur with 1,196, while Davao Occidental had the least number of vaccines administered with only 240 jabs.

“By phase ang ating pagbakuna ng five to 11 years old (We started the five to 11 years old vaccination per phase). We started with a few areas, then we can expand to more areas,” Manatad said during a virtual press conference.

As of date, all doses administered are first doses of the specialized 0.2ml of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

During the virtual orientation for parents during the kick-off of the pediatric vaccination on February 14, Dr. Sally Celeste Figueroa, consultant of the Pediatric Department of the Davao de Oro Provincial Hospital-Montivista, said the vaccine provides protection from a severe case of the disease, hospitalization, and avoids developing compilations.

“Vaccination is the best way to protect children from Covid-19 thus considering vaccination for our children will be beneficial in providing protection and reducing the public health burden of Covid-19 in children,” Figueroa said.

Manatad said DOH-Davao is targeting to vaccinate 790,286 children in the entire region. For Davao City, the target vaccinated population for the pediatric age group is 269,121, followed by 115,370 for Davao de Oro, and 152,521 for Davao del Norte, 104,253 for Davao del Sur, 53,469 for Davao Occidental, and 95,552 for Davao oriental.

Manatad said DOH-Davao is encouraging more parents to vaccinate their children against Covid-19.

“We would like to thank everyone for ensuring that their children will get vaccinated against Covid-19,” she said.