Amid reports that 99 children at the Gentle Hands Inc. orphanage had contracted COVID-19, Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte urged the government to expand its vaccination program to children.
She noted a steady rise of cases among children, citing a report from the City Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance Unit (CESU) that 12,608 children had COVID-19 as of Sept. 8.
Belmonte said three male staff ofGentle Hands allegedly went out of the orphanage to get their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine on Aug. 13. Six days later one of the children developed symptoms.
On Thursday, CESU confirmed that 122 residents at the Gentle Hands Orphanage tested positive, including 23 staff members and 99 youths aged 18 years and below.
The orphanage has a total of 163 residents, including both children and personnel, of which 143 were tested by CESU for Covid-19.
Of those tested, 118 tested positive plus the four index cases bring the total positive cases to 122.
On Wednesday, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the government may gradually include children in the COVID-19 vaccination program in the fourth quarter of the year.
“We will get the bulk of our supply in the) 4th quarter of this year. Once we get the bulk of the volumes, we can slowly include the children in the program," Duque told members of the House of Representatives.
The government expects to receive nearly 137 million doses from this month until the end of the year.
The Food and Drug Administration has allowed the emergency use of the COVID-19 vaccines of Pfizer and Moderna for minors aged 12 to 17.
In Cuba, health workers have started to inoculate children as young as two years old in a bid to reopen face-to-face classes—making it the first country to roll out a vaccination program for toddlers.
In the US, Los Angeles made vaccination mandatory for children aged 12 or over who attend public schools by the start of next year.
The vote by the Los Angeles Unified School District came as US President Joe Biden set out tough new nationwide rules designed to stanch the flood of new infections, ordering companies with 100 or more personnel to ensure all of them are vaccinated and requiring that all federal employees and contractors also get the shots. With AFP