The Tagbilaran City Health Office (CHO) is now preparing to carry out the pediatric vaccination of minors aged 5 to 11 against COVID-19 which is expected to start in the National Capital Region (NCR) early next month.

According to CHO spokesperson Robin Culpa, they are still awaiting the shipment of Pfizer’s pediatric formulation of vaccine doses from the Department of Health (DOH) before they could administer jabs to children in the age group.

“Gapaabot pa ta sa paghatag sa DOH sa vaccine. Naa na tay guidelines, ang supply nalang sa vaccine wala pa ta nahatagan,” said Culpa.

National Task Force medical adviser Ted Herbosa earlier announced that the country will receive the first shipment of 780,000 doses of the formulation on January 31. Some 1.8 million more doses are expected  to arrive in February.

The inoculation of the age group is set to start on February 4 in Metro Manila and other localities including Bohol are expected to follow suit shortly after.

According to Culpa, they have been directed by the DOH to establish their pediatric vaccination sites within the five-kilometer radius of a hospital.

With this in consideration, the CHO chose the Booy Elementary School and Booy Covered Court as their initial vaccination sites for the age group.

“So ang atong Booy Elementary School duol man siya sa Ace [Medical Center] ug duol pud siya sa Bohol Doctor’s Hospital ug atoang Booy covered court duol pud siya og hospital unya dagko pud ang areas dapat,” said Culpa.

He added that the vaccine recipient should also be accompanied by a parent or guardian while an ambulance and a pediatrician should be both on standby at the inoculation area.

Meanwhile, the CHO continued its pre-registration for the vaccination of children.

He said that so far, they have listed 1,000 interested recipients but are expecting more as the city is targeting to inoculate at least 5,000 children aged 5 to 11. (R. Tutas)