Vaccination of the 12-17 age group would mean 12 million to 14 million more people to vaccinate, according to FDA.
On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that the vaccination of the 12-17 age group would mean 12 million to 14 million more people to vaccinate against COVID-19.
During the Laging Handa briefing, FDA Director-General Eric Domingo said that it would mean an additional 12 to 14 million people to be inoculated against COVID-19 if they’re going to include those 12 to 17 years old in the COVID-19 vaccination program.
Domingo also assured the public that they will not be giving those vaccines to children unless it’s safe and effective.
Domingo’s announcement came five months since the Philippine government started its COVID-19 vaccination program and with FDA only approving the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for administration on children aged 12 to 17 and below.
Sinovac was already applying for emergency use authorization (EUA) for the use of its COVID-19 vaccine on children aged 3 to 17, but this was still under evaluation by the Philippines’ Vaccine Expert Panel (VEP).
Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr said on Sunday 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 aged 12-17 as soon as possible considering that they’ll be also vulnerable — particularly those with comorbidities.
READ ALSO | Galvez: Vaccination of 12-17 Age Group May Start End-September or October
Aside from this, Domingo said that the EUA application of Novavax for its COVID-19 vaccine will be decided “within 21 days”. Domingo also said that the approval shouldn’t be a problem as long as Novavax already submitted all its requirements.
The Philippines was eyeing to inoculate 76.3 million people by the end of the year in order to achieve herd immunity against COVID-19, a figure that didn’t include children aged 17 and below.
Galvez had said that the Philippines’ existing COVID-19 vaccine supply was short of at least 42 million COVID-19 vaccine doses. The Department of Health (DOH) had also said that coronavirus cases across all age groups had been increasing amidst the emergence of the Delta COVID-19 variant.
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