Mayor Joy Belmonte urged on Friday the national government to include children 17 years old and below in the vaccination program against COVID-19 amid the rise in the number of infections among minors.

Belmonte made the call after vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. told the House of Representatives on Thursday that the Philippines is raising its vaccination target to 90% of the population to reach herd immunity as advocated by health experts because of the highly transmissible Delta variant.

“What health experts are now pushing for cannot be achieved in our city if we will not allow children or those below 18 years old to get COVID-19 vaccines,” Belmonte said.

Based on the report of the City Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance Unit (CESU), more than 12,000 minors in the city contracted COVID-19.

CESU recorded a total of 1,327 active cases among children between Aug. 26 and Sept. 8 -- 48 of them are aged less than a year old; 597 are one to 10 years old, and 682 are 11 to 17 years old.

The city mayor said the local government is ready to start inoculating children once it receives the guidelines or “go signal” from the national government.

"We understand that there is a vaccine shortage at the moment but once our country gets a regular supply of vaccines with FDA approval for vaccinating 17 and below we should consider this right away. We need to protect our children given that they are directly or indirectly exposed," Belmonte said.

“Sa ngayon, habang naghihintay tayo ng rekomendasyon mula sa national government, patuloy nating pinapalawak ang COVID response ng lungsod, (As of now, while we are waiting for the national government’s recommendation, we continuously expand the city’s COVID response.), ” she added.

Yesterday, Sept. 9, the CESU confirmed that a total of 122 children and personnel of the Gentle Hands Orphanage in Barangay Bagumbuhay have tested positive for COVID-19.