Vaccination of the 12-17 age group may start by the end of September or October, according to Galvez.
On Sunday, vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr said that the vaccination of the 12-17 age group against COVID-19 may start by the end of September or October depending on the vaccine supply.
The Philippine government was looking to expand the country’s COVID-19 vaccination program to include children and adolescents after seeing how they’re impacted by the Delta COVID-19 variant.
During the press conference after the arrival of 326,400 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for the Philippine government and private sector at NAIA Terminal 3, Galvez said that they proposed it to the Interim National Immunization Technical Advisory Group for COVID-19 vaccines (NITAG) and to experts that they have to include children as soon as possible considering that they’ll be also vulnerable — particularly those children with comorbidities.
Galvez also said that India, which was severely hit by the Delta COVID-19 variant last May, had seen a disturbing increase of coronavirus cases in children. He also raised the alarming situation at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) as the feared COVID-19 variant was detected in all localities in Metro Manila.
According to Galvez, three children in PGH were under critical and two of them have comorbidities. Galvez also said that children were vulnerable because their resistance to pulmonary diseases had not been built up yet.
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The Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had given an emergency use authorization (EUA) to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for use on those aged 12 to 17 years old. Also, Sinovac had asked the FDA for approval to use its COVID-19 vaccines on children and adolescents.
Galvez also said that they can start vaccinating children and adolescents once they have a supply of those COVID-19 vaccines for as long as experts already allowed them to use those vaccines for children and adolescents.
Those vulnerable to COVID-19 were senior citizens and those with comorbidities. However, GMA News Online reported that in a recent analysis of Department of Health (DOH) data, coronavirus infections among children soared by almost 30 percent amidst the threat of the Delta COVID-19 variant.
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