Manila opens vaccine registration for minors

MANILA, Philippines — Mayor Isko Moreno opened vaccine registration for minors aged 12 to 17 in Manila yesterday.

He said interested minors can now pre-register at the city government’s COVID-19 vaccine registration website, www.manilacovid19vaccine.ph.

“While it is unclear when the national government will allow the administration of vaccines for this certain age group, they may already register for the vaccination,” Moreno said.

The Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of Pfizer and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines for persons in the 12 to 17 age group.

On Friday, the city health department reported that 1,000,206 persons had been fully vaccinated in Manila while 1,294,142 had received at least one dose.

Fully vaccinated individuals received either two doses of most brands of COVID-19 vaccine or one shot of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine.

The city health department said it had administered 2,255,541 jabs of COVID-19 vaccine for qualified individuals – persons 18 years old and above – since March 2021.

Based on the Department of Health’s population estimates, around 74 percent of Manila’s qualified population are fully vaccinated.