DOH to vaccinate children 5-11 years old

CEBU CITY – Health authorities urged parents to have their children age five to 11 vaccinated against Covid-19, especially now that the highly contagious Omicron variant is now the dominant Covid-19 variant in the country.

But Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, Department of Health chief pathologist, said parents or guardians must give their consent before their children are vaccinated based on the guidelines set by the DOH.

Loreche said during a recent meeting she attended with the members of the Philippine Pediatric Society (PPS)-Central Visayas, they recommended that parents allow their children to get vaccinated. “Pediatricians who attended the PPS meeting also recommended that children with comorbidities be inoculated in hospitals where they can easily be monitored in case of adverse events,” she said.

She said children with heart disease, diabetes, essential or juvenile hypertension, cancer such as leukemia, or an autoimmune disorder need special attention at a medical facility where there are physicians specializing in their ailments.

“As much as possible, they need to get vaccinated in training institutions, which means hospitals that have pediatric residency training programs to ensure that we have resident doctors and consultants who can monitor them,” Loreche said.

Loreche said children who have no pre-existing medical problems can get their jabs in vaccination sites near the hospitals. She said vaccination sites for the younger age group will still be manned by paediatricians, adding the children will be given an especially-prepared Pfizer (messenger RNA) vaccine with a 10 microgram dose at 0.2 milliliters.

The guidelines allow walk-in vaccination for children, but Loreche recommended pre-registration for faster administration. (John Rey Saavedra)