Iloilo City opens vax registration for 12 to 17-year-olds

ILOILO CITY – The registration for the 12-to17-year-old population who are willing to be vaccinated has started in this city. Jeck Conlu, spokesperson for the city COVID Team, on Thursday, August 12 said Mayor Jerry P. Treñas has ordered the start of the registration in the barangays to prepare for the expected vaccination rollout for the said age group on the last week of either September or October.

“We will no longer wait for September or October (to start registration) we start as early as now so that in case, we already have registered the majority of our children,” he said in an interview.

Those interested are advised to go to their barangay halls with their identification card or birth certificate.

The city government will also be coordinating with the Department of Education (DepEd) to have an idea of the adolescent population.

Dr. Bea Camille Natalaray, Medical Officer III and Department of Health Western Visayas Center for Health Development (DOH WV CHD) spokesperson, said it is good that cities are already making projections of those eligible in that age group.

“If the supply of the Pfizer vaccine is stable and adequate, maybe we could start with the vaccination of 12-to 17-year-old individuals. We are waiting for the official guidelines from our NVOC (National Vaccines Operations Center) if when we could start with the master listing,” she added.

Currently, only Pfizer vaccine has an approved Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the said age group, however, with the limited supply, the most at-risk and the vulnerable sectors are still the priority.

Natalaray said that as of Thursday, 19.69 percent or 1,025,893 of the 5,209,382 targets for priority group A have received their first dose while 758,103 or 14.55 percent are fully vaccinated.

Priority Group A is composed of frontline health workers, senior citizens, persons with comorbidy, frontline economic workers, and indigent population.

Overseas Filipino workers who will be deployed within four months and families of frontline health workers are also included in the priority group.

Western Visayas has an incoming 70,000 doses of Sinovac, 192,400 doses of Moderna, and 14,040 doses of Pfizer. (PNA)