CHILDREN with comorbidities may be included in the priority group of the government’s Covid19 vaccination program, the Department of Health said on Monday.

In a virtual forum, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said that “it makes a lot of sense” to include children with medical conditions in the A3 category.

“This is my personal view, if children are really those with comorbidities, children with heart, lung, and other accompanying medical conditions, that may fully justify from a policy standpoint — that’s allowed for children with comorbidities to be vaccinated,” Duque said.

“In the light of a more transmissible Delta variant, I think it makes a lot of sense, I don’t think anybody would question that they should be included as among individuals with comorbidities and automatically belong to the A3 category within the prioritization framework,” he added.

However, Duque clarified that those in the eligible groups will remain the priority in the vaccine program.

“For the vaccination of children, that also is not yet within the contemplation of the IATF,” he said.

Currently, the approved priority groups are A1 (frontline health workers), A2 (senior citizens), A3 (persons with comorbidities), A4 (economic frontliners), and A5 (indigent population).

The FDA has only given emergency use authorization to Pfizer for the use of its vaccine on children aged 12 to 17.

The Department of Science and Technology Vaccine Expert Panel has previously approved the clinical trial of Sinovac’s Covid19 vaccine for children aged 3-17.