THE DEPARTMENT of Health announced Saturday Pfizer-BioNTech has committed to supply 30 million doses of Covid19 vaccines for the inoculation of children aged 5 to 11.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergerie said the country will have sufficient supply for the pediatric vaccination.

“Sinigurado po ng ating gobyerno through our Vaccine Czar (Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr). Nakipag-negotiate tayo sa Pfizer at mayroon na po tayong committed na doses na about 30 million doses of this Pfizer vaccine for our children. Iyan po ay husto sa dalawang doses ng ating mga 15 million na five to 11-year-old na bata,” Vergerie said.

“Ito pong ating mga supplies dumadating po iyan in tranches. So dumating po kagabi 780,000 na doses para sa ating mga kabataan and sunod-sunod na po iyan na darating,” she added.

The government is eyeing to inoculate about 1,000 kids below 11 years old during the vaccination rollout starting Monday.

The Covid19 vaccines will be administered in 38 vaccination sites in the National Capital Region.

“Sa ngayon, ang ini-expect lang natin ay mga a thousand or so ‘yung mga mabakunahan natin kasi pilot pa lamang ito,” said National Vaccination Operations Center Co-Lead Dr. Kezia Lorraine Rosario.

“So, tinitingnan natin paano ‘yung rollout, paano ‘yung operations, at paano ‘yung acceptance ng vaccine recipients, ‘yung mga children, at ‘yung mga magulang,” she added.

Aside from NCR, the pilot implementation will start in selected inoculation sites in Central Luzon, Calabarzon, and in Maguindanao.