The Department of Health (DOH) is asking for patience from parents as the agency is still studying the proposals to allow Covid-19 vaccination for children below five-years-old.
“Hanggang sa ngayon talaga ((Until now) we need to study this further,” said DOH Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire in a recent press briefing.
“So, we are studying and sana po patient ang ating mga magulang (I hope our parents will have more patience),” she added.
Not all countries have started their vaccination for the said age group, said Vergeire.
“Hindi pa lahat ng mga bansa ay nagpapatupad nitong less than five years old na pagbabakuna because nakikita nila na kailangan pang pag-aralan (Not all countries are implementing this vaccination for those less than five year old because they still see the need to further study this),” she said.
The US and Canada are some of the countries that have already allowed to administer Covid-19 vaccines for children under five years old. The vaccines that were approved to be used for this age group were Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.
Vergeire urged the parents to protect their children against Covid-19 by following the minimum public health standards.
“Let us protect our children, especially those we cannot vaccinate as of this time,” she said.
“Rest assured nakikita natin sa ating trends na ang mga (that based on our trends, those) less than five years old are not part of those contributing too much in the number of cases in the country,” she added.
Currently, individuals aged five years old and above are allowed to get vaccinated against Covid-19.
As of Sept. 18, 2022, almost 72.9 million Filipinos have been fully-vaccinated or those who completed the two-dose primary vaccine series.