Philippines starts giving COVID-19 vaccines to minors with comorbidities

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines on Friday started the pilot COVID-19 vaccination of adolescents aged 12 to 17 with underlying medical conditions as it moved to expand the country’s inoculation program.

Select hospitals in Metro Manila, including the Philippine General Hospital, held ceremonial vaccination activities.

The Department of Health is targeting to vaccinate an estimated 1.2 million children with comorbidities.

In a briefing, DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the consent from parents or legal guardians and the assent from children will be needed for the vaccination.

Vaccine recipients will be screened and told about the benefits, risks and side effects of COVID-19 jabs. To date, only the vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are authorized for use in minors as young as 12 years old.

Once they are vaccinated, minors will undergo a 15-minute monitoring. Those with history of asthma, allergies and anaphylaxis will be monitored for 30 minutes.

Vergeire also said that minors must be registered for vaccination.

Aside from the PGH, the following were the hospitals selected for the pilot pediatric inoculation:

• National Children’s Hospital
• Philippine Heart Center
• Pasig City Children’s Hospital
• Fe Del Mundo Medical Center
• Makati Medical Center
• St. Luke’s Medical Center
• Philippine Children’s Medical Center

Since March, over 23.7 million Filipinos have completed vaccination against COVID-19, while 27 million have received partial protection.