THE City Government of Davao has 20,000 doses of vaccines for its vaccination drive of children 5-11 years old that starts today, February 21, in three sites – Almedras Gym, Vicente Hizon Central Elementary School, and San Roque Elementary School.
The sites are open for walk-ins but parents or guardians must bring a Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) copy of the birth certificate or valid student ID of the child, valid ID of the parents or guardian, Safe Davao QR of the child, and pen.
In an interview with Byaheng DO30 Monday, Davao City Covid-19 Task Force Spokesperson Dr. Michelle Schlosser said that three special sites can accommodate as many eligible children as possible with the number of available vaccines.
“[We will cater] as much as we can because we have received 20,000 vaccines from the Department of Health for the pediatric population group 5-11,” she said.
Schlosser added that they aim to consume all the allotted vaccines to the eligible children 5-11 age group. Parents and children are welcome at the special sites for as long as they bring the requirements.
“If we can make it as fast as we can na ma-consume nato na we will be doing that. That is why we are opening it for walk-in (If we can make it as fast as we can and we can consume it immediately, we will be doing that. That is why we are opening it for walk-in),” she said.
Schlosser said the city government has identified these sites to avoid confusion and misdosing if the vaccination for the 5-11 age group is mixed with other public vaccination sites.
“These vaccination sites are solely for 5-11 years old. Iba kasi ang dosage ng pedia and adult. Although our vaccinators/ health care workers are trained, we wanted to avoid misdoses that is why we created special vaccination sites para sa ingon ana nga age. Apart from that, we wanted the site to be as friendly and less threatening and fun for them para ma-engganyo sila magpabakuna (These vaccination sites are solely for the 5-11 years old. The dosage for pedia and adult is different. Even if our vaccinators/health care workers are trained, we wanted to avoid misdoses and that is why we created vaccination sites for that age. Apart from that we wanted the site to be friendly and less threatening and fun for them to encourage them to be vaccinated),” Schlosser said.
Schlosser added that the city plans to put up more sites for the 5-11 age group after the successful roll out of the pilot test for pediatric vaccination in the hospitals.
“We believe that after the success of the hospital and hopefully after the success of the three special sites, atoa nang ma-open ang additional lima ka district sites (We believe that after the success of the hospital and hopefully the success of the special sites, we can open five additional district sites),” Schlosser said.
The targeted additional sites are F. Dizon Elementary School and Abreeza for District 1, SM Lanang for District 2, GMall Toril, and Holy Cross of Calinan for District 3.
“Hopefully pag wala na’y glitches didto sa atoang special sites ma-open na pud nato ang atoang mga districts. Wala pa ta’y specific date on this one because definitely we will open it as fast as we can para mapaspasan kay I have mentioned daghan pa ta’g bakunahan na 5-11 years old. (Hopefully, if there are no more glitches in our special sites we can open our districts. We do not have a specific date for this but we will definitely open them as fast as we can because we still need to vaccinate many in the 5-11 age group),” Schlosser said.
Schlosser was thankful to the Southern Philippines Medical Center, Davao Doctors Hospital, Davao Medical School Foundation, and Seamen’s Hospital for the successful inoculation of 2,207 children within the one-week roll-out last week.
The city targets to vaccinate more or less 250,000 in the 5-11 age group. CIO