The Department of Health (DOH) has announced plans to increase further the number of hospitals that will administer COVID-19 vaccination to minors aged 12 to 17 years.
Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje said that starting Oct. 22, the first eight hospitals that have already conducted vaccinations in them will be further increased.
“The first 8 are identified hospitals, for the next 25, which we are starting on the 22nd, this also includes the identified hospitals of the LGU and we are trying 1 area where there is a nearby first-aid response, and then we move to the next batch of regions for the 29th,” said Cabotaje.
According to Cabotaje, some hospitals have expressed readiness to join the vaccination rollout for the pediatric sector with comorbidities.
He said the DOH has also identified the regions that will implement vaccination of minors.
Cabotaje said minors could register through their pediatricians and the LGUs.
“There are many ways, like the usual vaccination for adults, they can book through their pediatrician, some of the hospitals have actually accepted walk-ins,” he said.
The official also clarified that the “walk-ins” he mentioned were patients referred by their pediatricians or their local government units (LGU).
DOH to add hospitals for children’s COVID-19 vaccination
The DOH clarified that although they were part of the guidelines for opening face-to-face classes in areas with low COVID-19 cases, the Department of Education (DepEd) will still finalize it.
Included in DepEd’s decision is which areas can now conduct classes in schools.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said they only provided a list of places that can open classes depending on the implemented alert level system.
“What we would provide for them would be the list of these areas where the schools can open depending on the alert levels. For example, we have initially given them 59 schools from alert level -2, and out this 59 they went around, discussed with LGUs and apparently some local government-backed out because they were not prepared to handle this,” said Vergeire.
“That’s why they announced at the outset they are going to start with 30. But we already gave them a revised list of areas where schools can open already. We now have 329 areas,” she added.
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