To start vaccinating children aged 12 years old and above by Oct. 15
(Eagle News) – The Philippines has administered over 50 million vaccine doses, reaching another milestone in its COVID-19 vaccination campaign.
This comes as the country prepares to inoculate children aged 12 years and above, starting with those with comorbidities on Friday, Oct. 15.
The National Task Force against COVID-19 said that as of Oct. 11, a total of 50,066,590 doses have already been administered to more than 30 million Filipinos nationwide.
Of this number, 23,360,489 individuals have been fully vaccinated or 30.28% of the country’s target population.
President Rodrigo Duterte earlier expressed confidence that the country would be able to fully vaccinate at least 50 percent of the targeted population by year-end.
Meanwhile, vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr said that the country has enough vaccine supplies to inoculate roughly 1.2 million adolescents with comorbidities. They will start the inoculation of children with comorbidites aged 15 to 17, to be followed by those aged 12 to 14, in Metro Manila.
There are at least 144,123 adolescents or children aged 12 to 17 with comorbidities from Metro Manila who will be vaccinated in six hospitals.
These are in the Philippine Children’s Medical Center, National Children’s Hospital, Philippine Heart Center, Pasig City Children’s Hospital, Fe Del Mundo Medical Center, and Philippine General Hospital.
Earlier, the Department of Health said that children of hospital or health frontliners would also be prioritized.
The Food and Drug Administration initially approved the emergency use authorization of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for the inoculation of those aged 12 and above.
(Eagle News Service)
