Kids to get COVID-19 jabs in 6 Metro Manila venues

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) has identified 11 comorbidities for minors between 12 and 17 who will be deemed eligible for the pilot implementation of COVID-19 vaccination in Metro Manila.

The children will be vaccinated in hospitals but their parents or guardians must sign up with their respective local governments, according to Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire.

The minors would need the informed consent of their parents or guardians as well as clearance from their doctors. The children themselves must give their assent to be vaccinated.

Vergeire said the 11 comorbidities are medical complexity, genetic conditions, neurologic conditions, metabolic and endocrine disorders, cardiovascular diseases, obesity, HIV infection, tuberculosis, chronic respiratory disease, renal disorders and hepatobiliary conditions.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, however, added a 12th comorbidity — immunocompromised conditions due to disease or treatment.

Speaking at presidential spokesperson Harry Roque’s press briefing in Angeles City, Pampanga, Duque said these health conditions were listed by the Philippine Pediatric Society and the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society of the Philippines.

Assigned hospitals

Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje has named three hospitals that will perform the vaccination for minors—the Philippine General Hospital in Manila and the Philippine Heart Center and National Children’s Hospital in Quezon City.

Vergeire said, “We can’t say yet what other hospitals will be included aside from the three mentioned. We are still making the arrangements because we need to have an agreement with the hospital[s].”

But according to vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., the government has already identified six hospitals in Metro Manila where pediatric vaccination will be launched soon.

Speaking at Roque’s press briefing, Galvez said pediatric vaccination would also be conducted at the Philippine Children’s Medical Center, the Pasig City Children’s Hospital and the Fe del Mundo Medical Center, as well as the three hospitals also identified by Cabotaje.

According to Galvez, if all goes well after the 14 days of pilot vaccination for the minors, this will be expanded to six city governments in the capital region—Manila, Pasig, Taguig, Makati, Quezon City and Mandaluyong.

After 30 days, pediatric vaccination will be rolled out for the rest of Metro Manila and other areas of the country where more than 50 percent of the A2 priority recipients, or senior citizens, have already been inoculated.

With the mass immunization drive continuing in Metro Manila, more than 90 percent of the eligible population in the metropolis are projected to be fully vaccinated by December, said Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Chair Benhur Abalos.

BHW Rep. Angelica Natasha Co said the country’s neighbors, like Thailand, Taiwan and Indonesia, had been “aggressively working” on their production of COVID-19 vaccines.

“Where is the Philippines in all of this? So far, we have heard very little from our Department of Trade and Industry,” she said in a statement.

—WITH A REPORT FROM NESTOR A. CORRALES