Strategies for pediatric Covid-19 vax rollout OK’d

MANILA – The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) has given its nod to the proposed strategies to encourage more children to get vaccinated against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), Malacañang said Friday. 

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the IATF-EID gave its approval to achieve the government’s target to inoculate at least 80 percent of the 12.7 million children before yearend.

“On vaccination-related matter, the IATF approved the recommended strategies for the vaccination rollout for the rest of the pediatric population to achieve the vaccination rate of 80 percent of the target population by December 2021,” Roque, also acting as IATF-EID spokesperson, said in a press statement.

The Department of Health (DOH) aims to administer the Covid-19 vaccine jabs to 80 percent of the youth population belonging to the 12 to 17 age group within the year.

There are around 12.7 million children aged 12 to 17 in 2021, according to the data from the Philippine Statistics Authority.

The DOH confirmed Wednesday that the nationwide pediatric vaccination rollout will begin on November 3.

The government initially began on Oct. 15 the inoculation of minors with health risks only in select areas in Metro Manila.

Meantime, Roque said the IATF-EID adopted the recommendations on VaxCertPH, including the opening of requests for Covid-19 digital vaccination certificates for domestic use.

“VaxCertPH” is a portal and mobile application developed by the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) for the DOH’s issuance of digital vaccination certificates for fully-vaccinated Filipinos.

“All local government units (LGUs) that do not have electronic vaccine administration systems shall be required to adopt and use the Department of Information and Communications’ Technology Vaccine Administration System for recording and databasing of all vaccination information,” Roque said.

Roque said the DICT has been directed to provide “twice a weekly” updates regarding the regional status of submission compliance of vaccination data to the Vaccine Information Management System (VIMS) central database.

The Department of the Interior and Local Government, on the other hand, has been tasked to remind all LGUs about its national memorandum on the importance of submission of vaccination data to the VIMS central database, Roque said.

Roque said the IATF-EID has also recognized the indoor certification or qualifying examinations of testing centers as “specialty exams” that are allowed in areas placed under the new alert levels, except those that are under Alert Level 5.

He said the government could only allow the indoor certification and the special examination, if “all workers and employees of these testing centers and their examinees are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, there is compliance with prescribed venue capacity, and the minimum public health standards are maintained.”