The San Juan City local government launched on Monday, Feb. 7, the inoculation of children aged 5-11 years old against COVID-19 especially amid the threat of the more contagious Omicron and Delta variants.
The inoculation was held at the FilOil Flying V Centre, the city's primary vaccination hub, and was attended by San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora, Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya, and other government officials.
The local government unit (LGU) said that 1,300 children were vaccinated with the formulated low-dose Pfizer vaccine.
The city initially targeted at least 5,000 San Juaneño children in the age bracket to get the vaccine, but as of Feb. 5, around 6,200 have already registered for the program and 1,800 more from other cities and provinces.
To make the vaccination site appealing and entertaining to children, the city decorated it with a children’s party theme.
From February 7 to 11, cosplayers dressed as their favorite heroes, clowns, magicians, and balloonists will make an appearance to entertain the children. Film screening and coloring sheets will also be provided to keep them busy while waiting for their turn. They they will also get loot bags after their vaccination.
To prevent anxiety among children, the vaccination area has been screened off to keep the children from witnessing others who are getting their vaccine.
“The pandemic has already caused too much stress on our children so we decided to take these extra steps because we don’t want to traumatize them, we want them to remember this as a ‘happy experience’,” Zamora said.
“This is a huge leap from where we were last year when we have just started vaccinating our healthcare workers. The more people we vaccinate, the faster we can beat the virus,” he added.
Zamora expressed hope that the vaccination program will encourage more parents to have their children get inoculated and give them the confidence to send them back to school.
The mayor said the city government will try to finish the vaccination of registered 5-11 year-olds in five days.
The vaccination of the said age bracket was supposed to commence on Feb. 4. However, it was rescheduled to Monday, Feb. 7, due to delays in the delivery of the COVID-19 vaccines that are specially formulated for children.