THE PHILIPPINE Food and Drug Administration said on Monday that medical experts will give top consideration to the safety of children in checking the efficacy of vaccines.

“Ang primary concern natin, lalo na the children, is iyong safety. Before the efficacy, iyong safety muna ang tinitingnan ng ating mga eksperto bago natin payagan,” FDA Director General Eric Domingo said.

“So far, sa clinical trial data, wala naman pong nakikita na very unusual o iyong tinatawag natin na signals of very severe adverse events,” he added.

Based on reports, Pfizer-BioNTech Covid19 vaccine has a 90.7 percent efficacy rate for children aged 5 to 11, Domingo said.

He pointed out that the government will continue to monitor children who received their jabs against Covid19.

“Ito po, titingnan natin during the evaluation and of course, ‘pag sakali naman na i-roll out natin, continuous din po talaga ang monitoring,” the FDA chief said.

On Sunday, the FDA confirmed that Pfizer had applied for emergency use authorization of its vaccine on children aged 5 to 11.