Pfizer vaccines for children aged 5 to 11 to arrive January

MANILA – Pfizer-BioNTech (Pfizer) vaccine doses for children aged five to 11 years old are anticipated to arrive in January of next year.

Dr. Teodoro Herbosa, National Task Force Against Covid-19 Special Adviser, stated that while the emergency use authorization (EUA) for the use of the Pfizer vaccine on children aged 5 to 11 has been approved, the actual doses for the age group are still being procured.

“We still have to wait for the actual dose and concentration that has to be procured. So, that will probably come by January,” Herbosa said during the arrival of 871,650 doses of the Pfizer vaccine at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 on Thursday.

Herbosa expressed gratitude to the US government and Pfizer for the continued supply of Pfizer vaccine doses in the country, with the most recent shipment procured by the Philippine government through the Asian Development Bank.

“Our goal now is to catch up to the target of 54 million fully vaccinated. We are currently at 45 million fully vaccinated. We have six vaccination days left, and hopefully, we can achieve the remaining eight million in the six days,” Herbosa said.

He stated that immunization efforts would be boosted in Regions 3 and 4-A (Calabarzon) to compensate for delays in provinces caused by Typhoon Odette’s recent onslaught.

Earlier, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had issued the EUA for the Pfizer vaccine—citing its high efficacy rate at above 90 percent and “very mild” adverse events in its critical trial.

The concentration of the Pfizer vaccine for five to 11-year-old children is lower than the adult doses, according to FDA Director-General Eric Domingo.