MANILA, Philippines — The nationwide COVID-19 vaccination of children aged 5 to 11 will start on February 14, an official of the National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC) said Saturday.
NVOC co-lead Dr. Kezia Lorraine Rosario said the nationwide rollout will follow the pilot implementation of the pediatric vaccination for the said age group in select sites on February 7.
“Hinahanda rin natin ang national rollout. Ito ay mangyayari on February 14,” she said at the Laging Handa public briefing.
(We are also preparing for the national rollout. This will happen on February 14.)
“But on our pilot po kasama sa pilot rollout ang NCR. May mga sites din tayong bubuksan na po sa Region 3—limang sites sa Region 3 and tatlong sites sa Region 4A, at may isa din tayong bubuksan next week sa Cotabato City… Marami po tayong mga magiging vaccination sites for the 5 to 11. Sa NCR 38 vaccination sites po ito,” she said.
(But on our pilot rollout, we will include the NCR. We will also open five sites in Region 3 and three in Region 4A, and another site next week in Cotabato City…. We have a lot of vaccination sites for 5 to 11 years old. In the NCR, there are 38.)
The country aims to vaccinate 15 million children aged five to 11. According to Rosario, around 500,000 children within the age group have already registered for vaccination.
The vaccination for children aged 5 to 11 was supposed to start on February 4 but was delayed due to logistical issues. On Friday night, over 780,000 doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for the said age group arrived in the country. More vaccine doses will come in tranches in later dates.
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