Dr. Michelle Schlosser, spokesperson of the Davao City Covid-19 Task Force, said the vaccination cluster team is preparing the location, logistics and guidelines for the pediatric rollout.
“Hopefully mahitabo s’ya but the vaccination cluster team is pushing hard na ma-realize gyod nato on Monday,” she said.
(The vaccination cluster team is working hard to push through with the vaccination on Monday.)
According to Schlosser, the pediatric rollout will need a different type of syringe and a lower dose of the vaccine since the five to 11 years old children are a much younger age group.
She said the children can only be administered with a 0.2 milliliter (mL) dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine using a smaller syringe type, compared to the 0.3 mL allowed for the rest of the age groups.
At the same time, only the Pfizer vaccine will be used for the rollout since it is the only vaccine with approval for the pediatric population by the Department of Health (DOH).
“Pfizer lang atong ihatag sa mga bata kasi based sa studies and the guidelines we have coming from the DOH, safer ang Pfizer for kids,” said Schlosser.
(We will only administer Pfizer for the children since based on the studies and guidelines of DOH, Pfizer is safer for kids.)
The task force is also planning to hold the pilot rollout in hospitals to provide a safer environment for minors.
“Ang unang buhaton is i-roll out sya sa hospital para once may glitches didto, we can be able to manage it right away and then pag ok na ang tanan, i-cascade nato sya sa atong typical vaccination hubs,” said Schlosser.
(We will initially roll out the vaccine in hospitals so that once we encounter glitches, we will be able to manage it right away, and then cascade into the typical vaccination hubs later on.)
Schlosser added that the vaccination team is discussing whether to provide a separate vaccination hub for the kids or to incorporate it into the existing regular vaccination hubs but will be given a separate lane and section once the rollout is relocated from the hospitals.
For the parent’s preparation, the spokesperson also said the city government will issue a uniform medical certificate for children with comorbidities.
Schlosser said parents may get a copy of the template from the vaccination hubs, which will then be filled out by their children’s pediatricians.
“Kasi iba-iba angna receive namin na medical certificate. To validate the medical certificate, nag create ng template ang DOH para uniform ang medical certificate,” she said.
(We received different types of medical certificates, so to easily validate it, DOH has created a template for uniformed medical certificates.)
A parent’s consent is also needed for the vaccination.
