Senior citizens in Ilocos Norte receive their vaccines at a COVID-19 vaccination facility. The provincial government is expecting to ramp up its vaccination drive to achieve herd immunity. (Photo courtesy of Ilocos Norte provincial government)
MANILA, Philippines — As the country continues to expand its COVID-19 vaccination rollout, the World Health Organization (WHO) reiterated its earlier call that the government prioritize members of the most vulnerable sectors who have yet to be inoculated, pointing out that 3 million of the elderly remain unvaccinated.
WHO representative to the Philippines Rabindra Abeyasinghe said the organization agreed with the government’s plan to begin vaccination of adolescents with comorbidities outside Metro Manila.
But he said the government must make sure the doses reach the top priority sectors.
Abeyasinghe noted that in many regions in the country, only 30 to 40 percent of the most vulnerable had been vaccinated.
“With increased availability of vaccines, we continue to urge the local government units in those regions to make sure that… [the] most vulnerable groups are vaccinated,” he said at Monday’s Laging Handa briefing.
“This is critically important because we still believe that we need to be very careful in dealing with the ongoing Delta experience in some of the regions,” Abeyasinghe also said, referring to the highly transmissible variant of the novel coronavirus.
He advised that if the government would roll out a third COVID-19 vaccine dose, it should start with the 80-plus age group, then move on to the over 70, then to the over 60 age groups.
Expanding coverage
The vaccination of adolescents 12 to 17 years old with comorbidities will be expanded outside Metro Manila starting Friday.
A total of 9,928 adolescents with health conditions have been given their first COVID-19 vaccine dose since pediatric vaccination began on Oct. 15, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Monday.
“We have a timeline that by Oct. 29 if our pilot [vaccination] has been successful we will expand to other regions,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in an online briefing.
Pediatric vaccination is still limited to adolescents with comorbidities who have been cleared by their doctors.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has so far only approved the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for them.
But Sen. Francis Tolentino on Monday cited a law, Republic Act No. 10152 or the Mandatory Infants and Children Health Immunization Act, mandating the government to require parents to have their children inoculated.
Vergeire said pediatric vaccination would be expanded “once adequate coverage of the senior citizens has been achieved nationwide and vaccine supply becomes sufficient to include children.”
She said the DOH had advised the FDA “on our intent to apply for EUA (emergency use authorization)” with regard to the planned rollout of additional shots of COVID-19 vaccines.
“We are trying to facilitate [the submission of requirements] so we can begin as soon as the EUA comes out,” she said.
The WHO is expected to recommend additional shots by November, although Abeyasinghe said there was no such plan yet.
As of Sunday, a total of 30,003,713 or 27 percent of the country’s population had been inoculated, including 25,711,980 or 23 percent who had been fully vaccinated.