Cebu City prepares for vaccination of 5 to 11 yo

A third vaccination site for minors was opened on Tuesday, December 7, at the CIT campus in Cebu City. | Delta Letigio

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City is preparing for the vaccination of 5 to 11-year-olds on February 2022, as the Department of Health (DOH) announced the start of the vaccination for the age bracket by February 4, 2022.

Doctor Jeffrey Ibones, the head of the Cebu City Health Department (CHD), said that just like what they did for the 12 to 17 years old vaccination, there will be an online registration for parents or legal/authorized guardians to fill out at the Pabakunata.com.

Parents or legal guardians need to provide consent for the vaccination of their children or wards so that the dose can be administered.

“Kay gamay man og edad, mao na kailangan nga naay pediatricians same sa atong gibuhat karon. Among naplanohan, duol lang gihapon sa atong hospitals. Maybe kung ma open na ang Southwestern University nga site, didto nato ibutang,” said Ibones.

There is also a high chance that the current sites for the 12 to 17-year-olds will be used for the vaccination of 5 to 11-year-olds as well so that parents who have children from both age groups need to only go to one site.

The sites open for minors are currently the Cebu City Sports Center, Robinsons Cybergate, and SM Seaside.

Ibones said that most likely, these sites will soon cater to all the minor population since they are already set up and they have assigned pediatricians to handle the minors.

Still, the CHD awaits the guidelines from the DOH on the vaccination of the 5 to 11-year-olds for their final set-up of the vaccination sites. Most likely the vaccines will either be Pfizer or Moderna.

The chief doctor also assures the parents and guardians that vaccinators are well-equipped in handling very young children including 5-year-olds since the CHD has always been administering vaccines to children and even infants for regular vaccines like Polio, Rubella, Measles, Pox, and others.

He assured that the vaccinators are capable of administering vaccine doses to children of tender age, but he encouraged parents and guardians to be present and assist in the inoculation because 5-year-olds may have a tendency to move about the place and squirm.

The parent or guardian must be ready to assist the vaccinator for the younger children that is why they must be present at the site.

Parents should also be at the site to sign the consent forms, which are necessary for the vaccination to proceed.

Meanwhile, 75,000 minors aged 12 to 17 years have been registered by parents through Pabakunata.com.

At least 38,000 minors have been inoculated with the first dose while 15,000 already got their second dose and are now fully vaccinated.

Ibones also noticed that those who are going to the sites for their second dose have reduced to 200 a day, but the number of minors going to the sites for their first dose has increased.

This has provided hope for the CHD that they will be able to complete all registered minors in the coming weeks or months.         /rcg

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