THE QUEZON City government is preparing for the inoculation of children aged 5 to 11 that may begin in February.

Mayor Joy Belmonte said that the city government is “anxiously anticipating” the vaccination roll out amid the rising number of minors infected with the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

“Finally our younger children will be given the opportunity to receive the protection they so badly need in order to experience some kind of normalcy in their lives after having been cooped up for so long inside their houses to prevent the risk of infection,” Belmonte said.

“The pedia vaccines for 5-11 year olds will ensure that they will no longer suffer the side effects of prolonged immobility such as mental health problems, and can spend time with their parents and older siblings in recreational environments as well as eventually go back to face to face classes,” she added.

Dr. Maria Lourdes Eleria, coordinator of QC Task Force Vax to Normal, said that the city government is closely working with villages and public and private schools to consolidate a master list of children from the said age group.

“We are now synchronizing the list of children enrolled in our schools and those included in the census of our barangays so we can identify the number of children eligible for this round of pediatric vaccinations,” Dr. Eleria said.

The National Task Force Against Covid19 and the Department of Health have yet to issue guidelines to aid the city on the implementation of the vaccination program.

“We need to abide by the guidelines of the national government especially concerning issues such as the amount of doses, requirements pertaining to eligible vaccination sites, protocols in administering the vaccines, and other special instructions for the safe implementation of the vaccine program for this younger population,” Dr. Eleria added.

The local government is also preparing its online registration system where parents can sign up their children for vaccination.

Once available, the online registration shall be posted on the website of the QCVaxEasy Portal at www.qceservices.quezoncity.gov.ph/qcvaxeasy.