Quezon City ready to vaccinate 5-11 year-olds in February–Mayor Belmonte

Mayor Belmonte in QC’ s Mega Vaccination site at the Araneta Coliseum

MANILA, Philippines — Apart from intensifying its vaccination drive, the Quezon City government is now preparing for the pediatric vaccination of minors aged 5-11 year-olds scheduled for implementation in February.

This follows the approval by the Food and Drug Administration of the emergency use authorization of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine to be used for 5-11 year old children.

Mayor Joy Belmonte said that the city government is anxiously anticipating this vaccination roll-out given the high number of younger individuals recently infected with the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

“Finally our younger children will be given the opportunity to receive protection they badly need in order to experience some kind of normalcy in their lives after having confined for so long inside their houses. “The pedia vaccines for 5-11 year olds will ensure they will no longer suffer side effects of prolonged immobility such as mental health problems, and can spend time with their parents and older siblings in recreational environments and eventually go back to face to face classes,” said Mayor Belmonte.

Mayor Joy Belmonte and Health sec Fransisco Duque inspect vaccination sites

Dr. Maria Lourdes Eleria, coordinator of QC Task Force Vax to Normal, said that the city government is closely working with barangays and both public and private schools in the city to consolidate a master list of all children residing in the city from the ages of 5 to 11 years old.

“We are now synchronizing the list of children enrolled in our schools and those included in the census of our barangays so we can identify the number of children eligible for this round of pediatric vaccinations,” Dr. Eleria said.

However, she clarified that the National Task Force Against COVID-19 (NTF) and the Department of Health (DOH) have yet to issue additional guidelines to aid the city towards properly implementing the vaccination program.

“We need to abide by the guidelines of the national government especially concerning issues such as the amount of doses, requirements pertaining to eligible vaccination sites, protocols in administering the vaccines, and other special instructions for the safe implementation of the vaccine program for this younger population,” Dr. Eleria added.

The local government is also preparing its online registration system where parents can sign up their children for vaccination at the time and place of their choice. This online registration shall be posted on the website of the QCVaxEasy Portal,(www.qceservices.quezoncity.gov.ph/qcvaxeasy) once available.