DOH official: Some areas may allow walk-ins for vaccination of minors

MANILA, Philippines — Some areas may allow walk-ins for pediatric COVID-19 vaccination, an official of the Department of Health (DOH) said on Thursday.

According to Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje, the DOH is leaving it up to the local government units (LGUs) to determine how they will conduct walk-in vaccinations for minors aged 12 to 17.

“Yung walk in, alam naman natin na naging standard ng local government ay as much as possible sana, i-register para makontrol ang dami ng babakunahan at maplano nila kung ilang bakuna. But given that we have enough vaccines, titingnan nila kung paano ang response, some areas may allow walk in,” she said in an online media forum.

(We know that it has been the standard of LGUs to accommodate registered vaccinees so they can control the crowd. But given that we have enough vaccines, they will have to look at how their response will be and some areas may allow walk-ins.)

“While in principle we allow walk-ins, we will leave it to the local government units kung ano ang proseso nila (on how their process will be),” she added.

However, Cabotaje said that minors who will go to vaccination sites without a prior schedule should still be accompanied by their parents or guardians during the vaccination.

The government launched the first phase of pediatric vaccination only for those with comorbidities in eight hospitals in Metro Manila on October 15. The second phase, still in the capital region, started on October 22 and is now being implemented in 39 hospital-based and non-hospital-based vaccination sites. The third phase, on the other hand, will kick off on October 29 in 123 hospital-based and non-hospital-based vaccination sites across all regions.

According to Cabotaje, only Metro Manila and other areas ready for pediatric vaccination will start the inoculation drive for all minors aged 12 to 17 on November 3. She added that the “full rollout” of nationwide pediatric vaccination will be on November 5.

The pediatric vaccination against COVID-19 will cover an estimated 12.7 million minors. Cabotaje said the government aims to vaccinate at least 80 percent of the target population by December.

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