Em Ang, executive director of Emergency Operations Center -Task Force (EOC-TF), said that they brought the vaccines to the city’s cold storage facility at the Bacolod Government Center.
Ang said the hospital-based inoculation of the children between five to 11-years-old will start today, February 14 until February 16 at the Riverside Medical Center, Bacolod Queen of Mercy Hospital, and the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital.
On February 16, the City Health Office (CHO) will also be one of the venues for the pediatric inoculation, she said.
School-based inoculation will be on February 17 to 18 at STI West Negros University and St. John’s Institute while on February 21, the vaccination will be at the SM City Mall, Ang also said.
“We have to schedule the vaccination for this age group because we have limited vaccinators since only those who underwent training are allowed to vaccinate children five to 11-years-old,” the official said.
Those who failed to attend the training and zoom meeting conducted by DOH will not be allowed to inoculate the children.
At least 40,000 minors have already registered online and they are targeting to inoculate 5,000 children on the first week of vaccination for the age group, EOC records showed.
The EOC-TF will prioritize children with comorbidities and walk-ins are also allowed, although the team will prioritize those who have pre-registered for the vaccination.
Ang said only Pfizer has been issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for pediatric vaccination.
She said the parents will only bring their identification card because they need to sign consent for the inoculation.
Ang urged parents to bring their children to the city’s vaccination sites for their protection against coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
Meanwhile, after the augmentation of the vaccinators’ team in Bago City, EOC is also set to send their vaccinators to Kabankalan City to augment the inoculation drive of the locality.
Ang said they are planning to send at least three teams of vaccinators to Kabankalan.
On February 7, the EOC-TF sent three teams of vaccinators to Bago City after they received a request from the DOH.
Aside from that, Bacolod City also sent its spared AstraZeneca vaccines to the cities of Bago and Silay and Murcia town.
“We still have enough supply of vaccines and we want to help other cities in Negros Occidental so they can also reach the population protection since their residents were also visiting or working in Bacolod City,” Ang stressed.
The EOC-TF also provided its strategies and the city’s best practices to Bago City to increase the number of residents to be vaccinated against Covid-19.
In Bacolod City, about 92 percent of the total population eligible for vaccination was already fully vaccinated and the city is now concentrating on the booster shot and the inoculation of children five to 11 years old. (MAP)