PRIVATE hospitals Makati Medical Center and St Luke’s Medical Center will join other health institutions that will administer the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines on minors aged between 15 and 17 years old when the pilot pediatric vaccination kicks off in Metro Manila on October 15, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said yesterday.
Roque said the two hospitals will join the Philippine Children Medical Center, National Children’s Hospital, Philippine Heart Center, Pasig City Children’s Hospital, Fe Del Mundo Medical Center, and the Philippine General Hospital in the pilot implementation of the program.
National Task Force against COVID-19 chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr., in his report to President Duterte on Wednesday night, said the vaccination of adolescents or those aged 12 to 17 years old will be done in phases, with the vaccines to be administered to 15 to 17-year-old first on October 15, followed by the 12 to 14-year-old groups after a week.
The second phase, which will expand the implementation from the eight hospitals to six areas in the National Capital Region, will start on October 22. The third phase, which would already cover the entire NCR, will start on October 29.
The pediatric vaccination comes as the Department of Education prepares for the experimental implementation of face-to-face classes starting November.
Education Secretary Leonor Briones said the face-to-face classes will be done for two months, and will be gradually expanded until the country moves to the new normal.
Briones emphasized that the pilot face-to-face classes implementation will be a shared responsibility among the DepEd, the Department of Health (DOH), the local government units and the community, the parents of the learners.
She added the classes will start with “key stage 1 learners because of lesser risk of transmission, lesser burden of disease, higher need for face-to-face learning, and higher chance of success in pilot implementation.”
The DOH has approved the participation of 59 schools nationwide for the pilot implementation of the in-school classes.
Briones said the DepEd will make a weekly assessment if there is risk reduction in other areas to be able to increase the number of schools to complete the 120 schools for the pilot.
Galvez said the government is expanding the vaccination program to children as it opens the inoculation to the general adult population this month amid the steady arrival of both procured and donated COVID-19 vaccines from different suppliers and donors such as the COVAX facility and other countries.
The country received more than 3 million doses of Pfizer vaccines on Wednesday night composed of those from COVAX and the government’s procurement.
More than 1.015 million doses of Pfizer vaccines — composed of 76,050 doses that was delivered to Cebu for the Visayas allocation, and 862,290 delivered to Pasay for the Luzon allocation on Wednesday night; and 77,220 doses delivered to Davao on Thursday for the Mindanao allocation — were bought by the government, while the United States government donated, through COVAX, 1.989 million doses which were delivered to Visayas and Mindanao with 994,500 doses each.
National task Force against COVID-19 assistant secretary Wilben mayor said the Pfizer deliveries brings to 80.415 million doses the number of vaccine deliveries since February.
Roque said the government is expecting 1.38 million doses of Moderna that was procured by government and 747,816 doses of the same vaccine bought by the private sector to be delivered on October 8; and 885,700 more doses of Moderna bought by government and 477,600 doses of the same vaccine brand procured by the private sector to be delivered on October 9.
Roque says 48.39 million doses of 19 vaccines have already been administered nationwide as of October 6, with 22.65 million people already fully vaccinated in the country.
Galvez said the government is adjusting its target with the goal of inoculating around 88 million (80 percent) to 99 million (90 percent) of the general population from 77 million (70 percent) before the 2022 elections.
