FDA: COVID-19 vaccination of kids aged 5 to 11 may start January

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines may start administering COVID-19 vaccines to children aged five to 11 as early as January next year, the head of the country’s drug regulator said Friday.

“Itong Pfizer na bakuna na pang-five to 11, ang plano ng ating gobyerno gamitin siguro by January,” Food and Drug Administration director general Eric Domingo said in an interview with TeleRadyo.

(The government is eyeing to begin the use of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in children aged five to 11 in January.)

Domingo said the government will have to purchase jabs with lower doses than those used to inoculate adults.

The FDA authorized the emergency use of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in children aged five to 11 amid the worrying threat of the Omicron variant, which appears to be more infectious than the already transmissible Delta variant.

The government is targeting to vaccinate around 13.5 million children aged five to 11.

Currently, the country is using the coronavirus vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna to immunize adolescents aged 12 to 17.

Since March, only 46.95 million people have completed vaccination against COVID-19, while 56.82 million individuals have been given partial protection. — Gaea Katreena Cabico