By Christine Fabro
Some local government units in Metro Manila have opened their pre-registration for vaccination of individuals aged 12 to 17 years old, following the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval on the use of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines for adolescents.
In a Facebook post on Friday (Sept. 10), Manila City Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso announced the opening of pre-registration for the certain age group, however, Domagoso said it is “still unclear when the national government will allow the administration of vaccines for this certain age group.”
Similarly, the city government of Caloocan launched on Friday its vaccination online profiling of individuals aged 12 and up.
According to a Facebook post by Caloocan City Mayor Oscar Malapitan, the COVID-19 vaccine profiling is part of the local government’s preparation in the event that the national government allows inoculation of COVID-19 vaccines to the young population.
Muntinlupa City Mayor Jaime Fresnedi announced that the city government is preparing to start the registration of adolescents for their COVID-19 vaccination.
According to Fresnedi, the Muntinlupa City COVID-19 Vaccination Program (MunCoVac) team.
Meanwhile, the Quezon City government is requesting the national government to allocate or procure additional vaccines to include children.
Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte said in a statement on Sept. 11 that including children in the vaccination program is crucial since minors comprise 30% of the city’s population.
“What health experts are now pushing for cannot be achieved in our city if we will not allow children or those below 18 years old to get COVID-19 vaccines, and help them as well from getting seriously sick from the virus,” Belmonte said.
Belmonte said the local government is ready to start inoculating children once it receives the guidelines or ‘go signal’ from the national government.
READ MORE: QC urges national gov’t to expand COVID vaccination coverage to include children
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