The Muntinlupa City government is ready to roll out the vaccination of minors aged five to 11 years old on Monday, Feb. 7.
Two vaccination sites will be used by the city government in the vaccination of the age group in Muntinlupa.
Muntinlupa City Health Office chief Dr. Juancho Bunyi earlier said these are the Laguerta Health Center in Barangay Tunasan and Ospital ng Muntinlupa (OsMun) in Barangay Alabang.
Among health officials who are overseeing the preparation include Bunyi, Dr. Carolon Magalong at Laguerta Health Center, National Immunization Program coordinator Dr. Rochelle Abat, and Dr. Edwin Dimatatac of Osmun.
Over the weekends, personnel at the two sites were busy decorating the venues with children’s party-themed designs. This is being done to make the atmosphere appealing and relaxing for the kids. Besides the decorations, kids will also be given candies at the vaccination sites.
The city government is targeting to vaccinate a total of 68,000 kids aged five to 11 in Muntinlupa. As of Feb. 1, 10,047 kids in the age group have been registered with the Muntinlupa City COVID-19 Vaccination Program.
Of the total, 1,076 or 11 percent have comorbidities, classified as Pediatric A3, while 8,971 or 89 are without.
Last Dec. 22, the Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine for ages give to 11 years old.
The Department of Health (DOH) said the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine will be administered to five to 11 years old in two doses, three weeks apart.
During the “Laging Handa” public briefing on Feb. 5, National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC) co-lead Dr. Kezia Lorraine Rosario said in the National Capital Region (NCR), there will be 38 pilot vaccination sites for the kids.
“It is a combination. We have hospitals that are vaccination sites, there are schools that are vaccination sites and there are sites in malls.
She said the formulation of the COVID-19 vaccine for kids is “very safe for our vaccine recipients and this is suited for their age group.”
Rosario said the dosages for 12 to 17 years old and five to 11 years old are different. For the 12-17 age group, a dosage of 0.3 ml is being given while among five to 11, it will be 0.2 ml.
She added that there are 780,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for kids that arrived in the country. More vaccines will arrive this week to bring the total to around 1.5 million doses.