Galvez: PH to begin vaccinating 5-11 age group by Feb. 4

• 

MANILA – National Task Force (NTF) Against Covid-19 chief implementer, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., stated on Monday night that the government will begin administering formulated Covid-19 vaccine to children aged 5 to 11 years old by February 4.

“We are already prepared in the vaccination of 5 to 11 years old,” Galvez, also the vaccine czar, reported during President Rodrigo Duterte’s prerecorded Talk to the People.

The government will release the memorandum guidance this week, with town hall meetings to be conducted from January 24 to 28, for the rollout of the pediatric vaccination under the 5-11 years old age bracket, Galvez said.

He added that the formulated low-dosing Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine to be used for the younger population will tentatively arrive on February 2.

Galvez stated that the pediatric vaccination program for this age group will be implemented in two phases.

For the first phase, a pilot run will be undertaken in one hospital-based and one local government unit (LGU)-based vaccination site each city, within the National Capital Region (NCR).

For the second phase, it will be expanded to the rest of Metro Manila’s vaccination sites as well as other regions after a week.

“We will open the hospital and non-hospital vaccination site and we will expand the sites further to other regions after one week. Again, we will open our vaccination rollout on February 4,” Galvez said.

Based on the most recent data from the NTF, there are 7,246,430 adolescents, or children aged 12 to 17 years, which are now fully vaccinated against the disease.

Over 39.41 million people aged from zero to 17 years old are expected to be vaccinated, according to the government.